The NewStandard May Close Doors
The NewStandard is facing an uphill battle familiar to many of us in the independent media world — the bank account is about to dry up and they’re looking for help from readers. TNS set out to prove that you could create uncompromised independent media that didn’t rely on the generosity of journalists to contribute their work for free or that big grant to come through. They assumed that independent media supporters would step up and help fund the radically different model. They were right — for the most part. The following open letter to supporters has been making the rounds. If TNS doesn’t raise over $10k by the end of the month, they will close their doors. God, when will this stop sounding so familiar? Hey, do two things today. Support TNS. And then get Clamor subscription while you’re at it. It’s the least (and most!) you can do for indpedendent media that sustains you.
Last week, the TNS collective came to a difficult realization: we are in big financial trouble. Due to two dismal membership drives, it seems unlikely we will make it to the end of the year.
So we are taking drastic steps and asking our readers to either support TNS now or let it die. By September 30, if we have not reached our fundraising goal of $5,000 per month in new recurring donations, TNS will close its doors for good.
But we haven’t given up yet, and we’re pulling out all the stops to give TNS the chance it deserves to stay around, which is why we’re contacting you. We are trying to rally support everywhere we can, and we need your help. We would be grateful for any notice of support you could post on your website or send to your readers/members reminding them of the gap we fill in the journalism world, and urging them to support us. Of course, we’d be happy to do the same in the event that you found your organization in a similar situation.
Additionally, you can purchase an organizational membership with TNS, or you and your colleagues can personally donate.
The NewStandard is entirely reader funded in order to remain uncompromised and allow us to publish the hard-hitting news and investigative reports that are ignored by other media outlets.
Thanks in advance for your help.
In Solidarity,
The NewStandard Collective
October 12th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
This is open to anyone associated with Clamor (Reconstruction also started in the fertile independent media movement of Bowling Green, OH):
I would like to extend an invitation to you to join in on a collective blogging section of our upcoming winter issue of Reconstruction. The issue is the “Theories/Practices of Blogging.” In addition to the special section of posts on blogging there will be about a dozen essays on blogging.
The deadline is October 27th.
Our intent in this section of the issue will be to collect a wide range of bloggers and link up to their statements in regards to why they blog (something many of us are asked) and any statement they have on the theories/practices of blogging.
If you already have a post on this you can feel free to use it, or, if you are interested, you can submit a new one.
We will link to each statement from the issue at our site, with the intent of creating a hyperlinked list of statements on blogging that can serve as an introduction to blogging (or an expansion of knowledge for those already blogging).
If you are interested please contact me at mdbento @ gmail.com