My real goal (or obstacle) is to convince people that investigative journalism is worth their cold hard cash. My obstacle is not all that different from a citizen journalism venture that needs to convince people doing acts of journalism is worth their spare time.
Part of the problem journalism faces is bad PR. "Big J" journalism is associated with newspapers and broadcast television. Products that are facing distress and are increasingly disavowed by the public. More and more people are deciding a newspaper subscription isn't worth their money. That's fine, but if journalism is a process, not a product - some other form of journalism must still be worth money. Right now getting people to donate time or money to journalism is probably akin to getting people to donate time and money to the library.
Can journalism ever tap into the same energy as DIY knitting, gardening or tech tinkering?