AdaPulse: Independent Media Outlet

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The Concept

Objective independent media coverage of updates, projects, and news within the Cardano ecosystem is paramount. As we continue to grow, we'll need to begin to building pillars to discuss all topics outside of the current institutions e.g. Cardano Foundation and Input Output Global. 

Adapulse is a grass roots independent outlet built from community members. Our ideology is an informed and engaged community leads to sound decision making while navigate down the path of decentralized governance.  As the Voltaire era gains traction with the introduction of different governance concepts - dReps, on-chain voting, and others; Adapulse looks to serve anyone seeking resources to understand these concepts and participate in the ecosystem at their own pace.

The funding of this proposal will elevate the business model of Adapulse. It will provide funding for operations for the next 12 months. It will also support bringing on additional talent and adding competitive compensation which reduces our exposure to staff turnover.

Our Approach

We chose the route of Project Catalyst funding after being self-funded for the past year to ensure the values of what we built remain the same. Seeking funding outside of Catalyst would potentially leave our outlet exposed to influence from external factors.

The environment we’ve cultivated at Adapulse affords creators to generate content in a manner that doesn’t limit or restrict their message and focusing on presenting objective analysis. This has been a winning recipe to this point ,as we’ve published over 200 articles and 30+ videos while organically expanding our viewership along the way.

Since inception, Adapulse averages ~20k unique visitors monthly with very little to no advertising outside of a Twitter profile and posting on Facebook and Reddit. We’ve published articles that highlighted community projects and proposals that garnered social traction such as Western African Decentralized Alliance (WADA), PlayerMint, NFTMaker, Empowa, Dandelion API, and many more.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

We chose this category challenge for our proposal as the media and miscellaneous challenges were eliminated in fund9. We still believe that our proposal is well within the scope of this challenge. AdaPulse is a product from and for the community. We rely heavily on the input and communication of our community in order to continue to grow and serve the Cardano ecosystem. 

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

The Primary Risks

The primary risks which would prevent our team from executing on its deliverables is lack of incentives and staff turnover. As an independent media outlet, we rely heavily on the contribution of our strong and capable community members to provide timely and relevant content to educate the broader community. 

Risk Mitigation:

• A respectable incentive structure for our technical writers and content creators 
• Create a deep enough bench of content creators to mitigate any potential turnover in the short-term. 

Generating content on current events and Project Catalyst proposals to a standard the community appreciates is labor exhaustive. The incentives need to match the output. Striking this balance will cultivate a platform the community will appreciate while garnering the best creators pushing forward education and adoption. 

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

Daily Content

We set the standard of publishing over 200 articles in the last 12 months this included all over content. Moving the forward, if funded it will allow our team generate and publish over 250 news worthy articles alone over the course of 12 months which breaks down to approximately 5 articles a week. At the end of the week, this content will be consolidated into our weekly newsletter. 

In-Depth Project Proposals

We anticipate a Project Catalyst funding round ever 60-90 days. Roughly, 5 funding rounding rounds of the next 12 months. Publishing quality content is the standard and will focus our attention on 30 proposals each round we identify which will bring value to the community. In total, 150 in-depth articles outlining proposals submitted to Project Catalyst over the course of 12 months. 

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Daily News & Ecosystem Content: 8hrs

4hrs Conduct research 

2-3 hrs Drafting & editing content 

1-2 hrs Coordinating/publishing content

$25hr * 8hrs = $200 USD per piece of content

364 pieces of content/12months * $200 = $72,800 USD

Graphic Design for All Content (Articles, Proposal deep dives, Social media) 4-8hrs

$30hr * 8hrs = $240 USD per graphic

Rolling Deck of 250 Graphics * $240 = $60,000 USD

Project Catalyst in-depth Proposal deep dives: 15hrs

10hrs Conduct research (Interviewing teams/CEOs/Developers)

2.5hrs Drafting & editing content

2.5hrs Coordinating/publishing content

$40hr * 15hrs = $600 USD per proposal deep dive

150 Catalyst deep dives * $600 = $90,000 USD

Total Fund Request: $222,800

Rates based on average in the United States:

Content writers average between $15 - $40 USD per hour

Tech Writers average between $15 - $60 USD per hour

Graphic Design Artist average between $15 - $35 USD per hour

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Jeff - SWAG Stakepool - https://twitter.com/Swag_Stakepool / https://www.ada-swag.com/

Genzod - ZOD Stakepool - https://twitter.com/GenZod7

Josh - ATM Stakepool: https://twitter.com/AtmPools / https://atmstakepool.com/

Liberlion - Tech Writer - https://twitter.com/liberlion17 / https://liberlion3.wordpress.com/

Flantoshi - Tech Writer - https://twitter.com/flantoshi / medium.com/@flantoshi

TravelerJo - Columnist - https://twitter.com/TravelerJo1

Amanda - Graphic Artist

Future additions to Team:

Graphic Artist

2X Tech Writer / Daily Columnist

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Its not our intent to fund Adapulse via investors or any other external source at this juncture. Investors and many third parties bring motives and often time those motives tend to not be in the best interest of the broader community. We are a grass roots entity and an idea built from a few community members wanting to contribute to the where we identified a gap. 

We'll likely continue to come back in future rounds to request support from the community to continue to fund the endeavors of building AdaPulse into an independent pillar for objective and accurate information disseminated throughout the Cardano ecosystem. 

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Metrics to track progress:

• Weekly newsletter containing at least 4 pieces of content/news articles 

• Each Project Catalyst Funding round Adapulse will cover 30 different proposals 

• Upload two videos a week to Adapulse News on Youtube

• Expand audience by 100% over the course of 12 months. (from 20k monthly unique readers to 40k)

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success is exceeding the metrics stated in our proposal while organically growing our audience. 

As outlined in the proposal, we expect to generate over 400 pieces of content centered around the Cardano ecosystem with the next 12 months. We expect to meet and possible exceed these expectations if funded. 

Success would also be defined by growing our audience. On average, Adapulse website has between 20k-25k unique readers monthly as well as ~150 views on each video uploaded to Adapulse on Youtube. Expanding our reach by doubling our viewership over the next 12 months would also be an indicator of success. 

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

A variation of this proposal was submitted previously in Fund8 but didn’t meet the voting threshold to be awarded funding.