First Look Media, the new journalism venture backed by billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and led by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill, will launch the first of its online magazines early next week, with the inaugural edition to focus on NSA documents.

Omidyar and Eric Bates, former executive editor of Rolling Stone who also forms part of the new venture, wrote on Thursday that the new site's

...initial focus will be in-depth reporting on the classified documents previously provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

First Look is still in the midst of building our team and refining our larger editorial vision and strategy. Later this year, we will launch more digital magazines, along with a flagship site. But in recent weeks, there has been a dramatic escalation in the threats against journalists reporting on the NSA story. First Look will uphold the rights of journalists everywhere to report on the sensitive and often controversial information that they learn from sources. We are launching the new site as a public service, committed to reporting on one of the most pressing issues of our time in a transparent and responsible manner.

The post also announced that noted journalists Marcy Wheeler, Peter Maass and Ryan Gallagher were joining the First Look team.

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