Bobbie Johnson, co-founder of web startup Matter, told delegates at the news:rewired – digital stories conference, in London today, how he arrived at the ‘model for high-quality journalism’ and managed to raise funds for the idea in a month.

Matter works by publishing a single long piece of journalism every month. The first article went live on Wednesday 14 November after Johnson and his business partner Jim Giles managed to raise $140,000 in a month – from a campaign on Kickstarter – to support run the business they run from their bedrooms.

This session of the news:rewired – digital stories conference looked at the opportunities for long-form journalism; including investigative reports published to e-readers and video documentaries.

Speakers also discussed revenue models, allowing delegates to learn from their experiences of what does – and what doesn’t – make long-form journalism pay.

Those speakers were: Bobbie Johnson, co-founder, Matter; Alex Miller, executive editor of VICE UK; Simon Frantz, deputy editor of BBC Future, a project from the commercial arm of the BBC; Patrick Hussey, design lead, Aeon magazine.

Kathryn Corrick, strategic communications consultant, acted as moderator for the session