Kickstarter hires journalist to investigate failed drone campaign

After a Kickstarter campaign raised $3.5m to make drones only to fly away into the void, it brought the shortcomings of crowdfunding into sharp relief. But Kickstarter itself is hiring an investigator to unravel the circumstances of the failed venture.

What's more, the pick isn't a buttoned-up accountant-type, but a journalist, Mark Harris-signaling its intent to tell a meaningful story of how things can go wrong on its platform. James Vincent reports that the drone's backers are an audience-and that they deserve the truth.

In a blog post on Medium announcing the news, Harris writes: "[Kickstarter] wants to help the backers of this failed project get the information they are entitled to under their agreement with the project creator. They would like to uncover the story of Zano, from its inception to the present, and decided that the best way to do that was to hire a journalist." Harris says his "primary audience" is the Zano's original backers, and that he will try to publish the story "in the middle of January."