EBay founder and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar is launching a “new mass media organization “to cover general interest news,” through which he will support “independent journalists,”

EBay Founder Plans News Venture

Pierre Omidyar to Work With the Guardian’s Greenwald

WILLIAM LAUNDER and KEACH HAGEY

Updated Oct. 16, 2013 6:01 p.m. ET

EBay Inc. EBAY -0.83% founder and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar is launching a “new mass media organization” to cover general interest news,” he disclosed in a Web posting, the latest sign of how Silicon Valley riches are flowing to the news business. Mr. Omidyar, who remains eBay chairman and the e-commerce company’s biggest shareholder with a stake valued at about $6 billion, is reportedly committing at least $250 million to the venture, according to an interview he gave media academic and blogger Jay Rosen, who wrote about it on his blog PressThink.A spokeswoman for Mr. Omidyar wouldn’t confirm details in the PressThink posting but she said Mr. Omidyar had consulted with Mr. Rosen. Mr. Omidyar also links to the PressThink item at the bottom of his posting.

Mr. Omidyar wasn’t available for an interview, the spokeswoman said. He described his plans broadly in a posting on the website of Omidyar Group, an organization dedicated to his and his wife’s family’s business and philanthropic ventures.

In the posting, he confirmed he is teaming up with Glenn Greenwald, who led the Guardian newspaper’s recent coverage of U.S. surveillance programs, and two others associated with Mr. Greenwald. Mr. Greenwald didn’t respond to an email request for comment.

Mr. Omidyar’s move comes just weeks after Amazon.com Inc AMZN +1.33% ‘s founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos personally paid $250 million to buy the Washington Post,WPO +1.25% whose owners decided to sell in the face of continuing industry economic struggles.

Mr. Omidyar said he had also explored buying the paper over the summer. That process “got me thinking about what kind of social impact could be created if a similar investment was made in something entirely new, built from the ground up. Something that I would be personally and directly involved in outside of my other efforts as a philanthropist,” he wrote.

A spokeswoman for the Washington Post’s former parent company declined to comment.

Mr. Omidyar said he is “in the very early stages of creating” the mass media organization and doesn’t know “when it will be rolled out, or what it will look like,” he said.

Mr. Omidyar, who isn’t involved in eBay’s day-to-day operations, is already an active supporter of online journalism. In 2010 he launched Honolulu Civil Beat, a news website dedicated to reporting on public affairs in Honolulu. Mr. Omidyar is CEO and publisher of the site, which charges a subscription fee of $9.99 a month, although some of its content is free. The site has also worked with AOL Inc. AOL +1.40% ‘s Huffington Post in another site called HuffPost Hawaii.

Arianna Huffington, the editor in chief of Huffington Post Media Group, said she had spent time with Mr. Omidyar and had discussed with him his “ideas about media.” She said he is a big believer in for-profit journalism. “It’s very important for him that these become profitable operations because that’s an indication that the public is really getting value.”

She said Mr. Omidyar, aside from his highly-visible philanthropic ventures, remained a dedicated computer programmer from his eBay days and would likely be involved in the technological aspects of launching the new site.

Mr. Omidyar funds a variety of startup and citizen journalism organizations, including Sahara Reporters, a group dedicated to reporting on corruption and civil rights abuses in Nigeria, to Mideast Youth, according to the website of Omidyar Network, an offshoot of the Omidyar Group.

Ms. Huffington said the new venture would have a “heavy emphasis on civil liberties.” She said that he was aware of the challenges facing investigative journalism, particularly in taking on governments. He was willing to provide the legal resources necessary to protect such reporting activities, she said.