Looking to evolve a sustainable system beyond grant funding, DocumentCloud is adding new paid features to what will remain a core free service.

New tools will include a mobile-friendly document viewer and automated analysis tools. The site will provide reporters and everyday researchers access to its catalog of 1.1 million documents and growing. A $1.4 million Knight Foundation grant will go towards this transition.

"Our goal is to keep the core service free. The idea is to build enhancements we can charge for while allowing journalists to continue to upload, analyze, annotate and publish documents at no cost," said lead developer Ted Han and Mark Horvit, executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

DocumentCloud launched in 2009 with a grant from the Knight News Challenge, with a goal to support transparency through an open catalog of documents. Offering official government papers has allowed it to shine a light into some heavy material, from Sarah Palin's emails to documents from Edward Snowden.

The list of DocumentCloud contributors ranges from small town-centric news outlets, like the Sante Fe Reporter, to entire networks, like Al Jazeera English. In another Knight-supported project, The Lens in New Orleans used Document Cloud to create The Vault, a library of more thank 5,000 city contracts.