EBAY FOUNDER TEASES PLANS FOR NEWS SITE

EBay founder Pierre Omidyar has released a first look at First Look Media, the news site that he is launching with former Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates overseeing the editorial side of the operation. A newly unveiled landing page for the First Look webpage (www.firstlook.org/#/home) announces: “We’ll cover the world, from sports and entertainment to politics and business.” It goes on to say that it “seeks to reimagine journalism for the digital age, combining the promise of technological innovation with the power of fearless reporting.” Finally, it concludes, “we are committed to strict standards of accuracy and honesty, a willingness to report our own errors and inconsistencies as well as those of others, and a deep respect for the transformative power of true stories.” Beyond such promises, it does not indicate just how the information will be presented — whether it will primarily be a text-based or a video-based news site, for example. In an interview with Dylan Byers of Politico.com, Bates said that after the word was leaked that Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who published the original stories based on Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks, would be joining the venture, there was a “misperception” that it would focus on government watchdog reporting. “The flagship site will have a number of sources of content, from aggregation to breaking news to in-house investigative journalism,” Bates said.