Silicon Valley Accellerator to Tackle the Future of Journalism
Entrepreneur Corey Ford is in an interesting spot: Today he launched Matter, the startup accelerator that aims to help companies tackling the future of publishing and media. But as of yet, no one, including Ford, necessarily knows what that future of journalism looks like. So what kind of companies will Ford accelerate to build that future? Companies that change how people think and learn, and companies that do things that well, matter.
Ford, who was an award-winning journalist with Frontline before teaching entrepreneurship at Stanford’s design school and starting Runway at Innovation Endeavors, isn’t going at it alone. While Matter (no relation to our former colleague Bobbie Johnson’s Matter startup) is structured like a typical accelerator, incubating companies for four months and giving them $50,000 in funding, it has backing from KQED, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Public Radio Exchange (PRX). KQED and the Knight Foundation have each put $1.25 million into the initial $2.5 million fund, and PRX will provide strategic support. Applications for interested companies are due by Jan. 6.