Jimmy-
I think it's a great initiative! First, kudos for using the CC-BY license. I have reviewed a large number of nonprofit journalism outlets over the last few months [1], and this decision alone would set the project apart from even the public interest media sphere. There are only a few nonprofit news/journalism projects using a free or semi-free license, e.g.:
- Common Dreams (lefty/progressive site) uses CC-BY-SA - Mosaic (science publication) uses CC-BY - The Conversation (sort of a nonprofit/academic Vox.com) uses CC-BY-ND - ProPublica uses CC-BY-NC-ND - Aeon (science/philosophy) uses CC-BY-ND for some content
But for the most part, even nonprofit publications tend to use conventional copyright, making it difficult for Wikimedia and other free culture projects to collaborate with them (and of course the more restrictive CC licenses above are not Wikimedia-compatible either).
I hope the license will apply to photographs/videos as well as text, since a lot of media files will be of immediate value to the free culture world.
Second, kudos for not paywalling the content. A lot of people seem to re-discover the idea of paywalls in 100 different forms and sell it as innovative. Again, it prevents collaboration with other communities.
There's no mention in the FAQ as to whether WikiTribune will be nonprofit or not, or whether that's even on the table. I am guessing the answer is no, but it would be good to clarify that. Similarly, it would be good to make any commitment to the development/use of open source software beyond WordPress explicit.
Good luck raising the $/supporter goal and hopefully launching the site, will definitely be keeping an eye on it. :)
Warmly, Erik