Nathan Schneider
Ooh, nice to hear @caseynewton and Kevin Roose talk about media co-ops like Defector on Hard Fork: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/podcasts/hard-fork-ai-news-media-a16z-chris-dixon.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
But I disagree that public funding isn't necessary. The market is inadequate for a healthy news ecosystem. Always has been.
More research on co-op news: http://ntnsndr.in/StakeholderNews
Nathan Schneider
oh and the chance to hear a crypto booster VC describe the history of the internet as a Hegelian dialectic
Jzero
I started reading that paper, Nathan, and was intrigued by the first example you cite, of the Colorado Sun. Reading their website, they look like a good example of how community media can work. Besides a lot of good old fashioned community organizing work, they also had an initial input of capital. The initial funders bailed, but they had enough local support to keep it going. Enlightening on a number of fronts.
https://coloradosun.com/2020/06/04/colorado-sun-media-journalism-newspapers-opinion/
Nathan Schneider
@GuerillaOntologist @caseynewton well, the initial funders didn't exactly bail—the Sun got a huge grant from a doomed crypto startup and were wise enough to take it in dollars:) To your earlier points! But yes, it is a powerful example of what could be possible if co-op models had more access to significant early stage capital.
With RMEOC, the @coloradosun recently shifted to a more resilient worker control model—legally a nonprofit, but worker self-directed. Huge success story.
Nathan Schneider
@GuerillaOntologist @coloradosun I think Civil had some interesting ideas, including a "supreme court" model to anchor the token system in human values, and plans for a cooperative insurance program for newsrooms.
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