Cruise ship story another successful launch for InvestigateWest

InvestigateWest is pleased to launch another new venture this week with 12 media partners and Spot.us, the grassroots journalism organization that brings community dollars to journalism that matters.

IW had a good idea for a story that needed doing - taking a hard look at the billions of dollars that a popular form of vacationing pumps into local economies and asking just how green is that spending? The irony is that this economy depends on locations like Washington state, Alaska and British Columbia, with pristine waters and lush, green environmentally appealing forests and mountains that draw tourists. But if those tourism dollars do damage to that very same environment, is it worth supporting? Those are the questions that InvestigateWest and reporter Lee van der Voo set out to answer.

The story and the answers we found can be found on our site, on Spot.us, and with our many media partners that are publishing the story, including Seattlepi.com, The Spokesman-Review, The Portland Oregonian,  The Daily Herald in Everett, The Walla Walla Union Bulletin, The Tyee, Crosscut, MyEdmondsNews, Seattle PostGlobe , The Daily Green, The Kitsap Sun and others. KCTS 9 in Seattle also did a news program on the subject, interviewing reporter van der Voo on her findings.

We're proud to be associated with such great media partners, and it was super to have so much amazing community support through Spot.us. The pledges ranged from $5 to $100, and most were $20 or less.

Thanks so much to our media partners and to members of the community who helped make this important story possible.

Please read our story, send us feedback, and support more community funded journalism by becoming supporting members of InvestigateWest.