[Imc-web] Alternative News Website to Launch:

Sat Sep 6 13:33:55 CDT 2003

FYI:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2003 13:42:54 -0400
From: PeoplesNetWorks Collective <collective at peoplesnetworks.net>
To: info at urbana.indymedia.org
Subject: [Imc-info] Alternative News Website to Launch

Dear Editors at Urbana-Champaign IMC,

Hello from Syracuse, NY! We am writing to enlist your help in getting the
word out about this project. We would appreciate any help you could give us.
I have posted our press release below. If you have any questions, please
don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,
Jessica Azulay and Brian Dominick
Co-Editor
The NewStandard

---------------------------------------------------------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | 9/1/2003

Independent News Website to Launch in December
Progressive, nonprofit news source seeking contributors, editors and donors

A new, nonprofit collective called PeoplesNetWorks has released the
pre-launch promotional version of its future news website, The NewStandard.
The live site, which promises to provide up-to-date coverage of current
events around the globe from a progressive, commercial-free perspective, is
scheduled for release on December 1, 2003. PeoplesNetWorks is currently
located in Syracuse, New York.

http://newstandardnews.net/promo

This fresh endeavor promises to mix the professionalism of the mainstream
media with the independence and edginess of the alternative press by paying
journalists competitive rates to report what the corporate media won't let
them report, the way those journalists want to report it. As a
subscription-based "paid content" website, The NewStandard will derive no
revenues from ads. Instead, it will be entirely funded by subscriptions and
donations.

The NewStandard's future editors, having journalism experience themselves,
say their publication will remain "journalist-centric." According to
activist and freelance journalist Jessica Azulay, a co-founder of
PeoplesNetWorks, The NewStandard will offer journalists significant
autonomy, and will support labor organizing on the part of freelance and
staff contributors alike. "We know what most journalists go through day to
day," she says. "We're just not interested in treating reporters and artists
like cogs in the corporate machinery."

Co-founder Brian Dominick, who has spent more than 10 years in the
alternative media field, most recently at ZNet (http://www.zmag.org), says
he also expects The NewStandard's business model to have special appeal
among alternative media workers. "For journalists and would-be journalists
who have so far avoided or been rejected by the mainstream media," Dominick
notes, "the idea of getting paid to portray reality from a non-corporate
perspective usually seems elusive, at best."

Azulay concurs. "As someone who has been published a lot and paid only a
little, I'm interested in seeing my peers get paid for their effort. All too
often staying true to one's principles and telling the whole truth means not
getting paid. It's admirable that so many journalists work for free in order
to not 'sell out,' but we intend to build a sustainable media institution
that will provide solid news on one hand and a livelihood for progressive
and radical journalists, on the other."

At a time when only niche news websites are able to break even on the paid
content model, The NewStandard arrives on the scene denouncing ad revenues
while claiming the potential to be "in the black" within two months of
operation. Azulay sheds some light: "The truth is, dependable, trustworthy
news has become a niche market. The mainstream corporate and public media
has become so biased in favor of corporate and government interests, people
are now willing to pay for news that hasn't been filtered through the lenses
of multinational corporations." The group is also banking on the prediction
that people with means will donate extra funds to help make The NewStandard
more accessible to people for whom even the $6/month low-income subscription
fee is too steep.

Dominick adds, "Independent news -- not biased by the whims and investments
of publishers, producers and shareholders; not influenced by commercial
sponsors and underwriters -- news that is truly independent of the profit
motive has become so rare, you can't get it for 'free' even on the Internet.
News costs money to gather and produce, but it's become more and more
obvious that ad-driven media is not 'free' either. The cost of ad-driven
news is truth and relevance. That's a cost people are increasingly unwilling
to pay."

PeoplesNetWorks suggests that by limiting "superfluous overhead costs" such
as "exorbitant executive salaries" and "what typically amounts to
technological highway robbery," and by providing a kind of coverage found
nowhere else, The NewStandard will be a viable challenge to the behemoth
mainstream media. Explains Azulay, herself a freelance journalist, "We're
building The NewStandard as a labor of love, as something we know is
desperately needed in this world. A combination of factors makes this
project completely feasible right here, right now," Azulay continues, citing
"mounting dissatisfaction with the mainstream press" reported by journalists
and consumers alike.

Rather than seek startup financing and risk becoming caught up in a cycle of
dependency, PeoplesNetWorks will keep initial costs very low and rely
completely on donations and foundation grants.

The PeoplesNetWorks collective is currently building a foundation of content
contributors, including writers, cartoonists and photographers. They also
report two editorial/administrative position availabilities in their
unconventional, collectively organized office. PeoplesNetWork founders are
available for interviews by telephone and email. For more information about
their job openings or The NewStandard's journalism opportunities, visit
http://newstandardnews.net/promo.

website: http://newstandardnews.net/promo
blog: http://newstandardnews.net/blog
telephone: 315-885-9649 / 315-423-4783
email: collective at peoplesnetworks.net
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