OP here -- Decided to post this after this thread (
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25154282) yesterday.
As we said there, we're trying to take the convenience and brevity of social news updates, but use them to build a new platform that helps reporters and surface trustworthy, local news. We make tools for newsrooms that then syndicates out to the consumer platform, before an article or video is ever even made. (We are to news what OpenTable is to restaurants.) And through rev-shares, our partners succeed when we do.
https://www.forthapp.com is our consumer side, https://www.nillium.com/newsrooms for the newsroom SaaS.