Nate Silver’s soon-to-relaunch FiveThirtyEight will focus on more than sports and politics

Acclaimed big data journalist Nate Silver may be best known for his coverage of sports and politics, but his new site — FiveThirtyEight — is going to adopt a far broader approach when it relaunches. Silver says that reboot — in partnership with ESPN and ABC News — will happen “early” this year, and will see the focus extended into economics, lifestyle and science.

“By design, almost any topic in the news can potentially fit into one or more of these categories. Our idea is that the site’s mission will be defined by how we cover the news rather than what we cover,” Silver says in a blog post. Thus far, Silver has recruited 15 reporters and is hiring more.

Going into more detail, he explains that the site “will seek to apply the concept of data journalism on a wider scale,” by both analyzing big data related to stories,  as well as shining light or critiquing “irresponsible uses of data and statistics” in reports and among key topics.

➤ Status Update: Building FiveThirtyEight [FiveThirtyEight.com]

Image via Randy Stewart / Flickr