Gowanus Journalism Project

All of us read.  

Many of us read or read newspapers.  Most of us now get our information online. 

And that information is STILL suspect.  Few trust what they see in the blogosphere.  Few really see it anyways.  The mainstream media still dominates the majority of our attention except for a few self referential circular enclaves.  The news rarely breaks out.  And when it does it falls into the hands of a fading media system bound to miss the point.

Why is that?

Is it because:

• there is a lack of substantive story cultivation/review/editing on the web.  Without it blogs are the 21st century equivilent of gossip.  
• the nouveau freelancers/bloggers are stridently individualistic.  And as such they are doomed to be the only fish in their personal pond.
• there is no mechanism to accentuate the positives of the new media while keeping in check its downsides.
• no one knows what organization model to follow.  Without a model journalists feel is commensurate with their old/gone jobs, they opt out claiming they are being offended at what is being offered.  The new kid in town does not, and never will, play by the archaic rules being longed for.  So instead of having people who left mainstream media participate, the current set of new media is mostly lacking in experience which leads to lesser standards.  Wait long enough and the old guard becomes irrelevant.

What is really up?

The old media is now truly dying. Only a few will survive.  Lost is a commensurate number of jobs.  Forever!  All of those jettisoned will have to flip burgers or help augment the new media.  And the rules of the new media will change often.  So adapt.  Or die.  The only constant is change.  Those who cannot see or abide by this are done.

This has all been done before.  The advent of the Teletype. TV. Camera. Radio.  Film.  Each time the print industry survived.  But it was a lesser industry.  The internet is making it a lesser industry now.   One that can't even keep up with the news or maintain staff.

And maybe the internet is a very sharp butchers knife that by its mere existance is forcing the old industries to trim ALL of the fat NOW.  Is this good or bad?

WHO CARES!?   It just is.

The problem is simple.  There are many reporters and editors out there without useful, productive, and dare we say profitable outlets for their work now that the standard mainstream media jobs are no longer out there.

What to do?

Here is a new model.  Come kick the tires.  Lets call it Web 3.0.

Web 0.01 was usenet

Web 0.1 was bulletin boards/compuserve.

Web .5 was Netscape

Web 1.0 was existings corporations trying to exert control over the new landscape

Web 2.0 was the new growth after the death of 1.0.  It was rapid growth to fill out an area ripe for near-term unlimited growth.

Web 3.0 is the return of competition to the landscape.  A few 1.0 survive.  Many 2.0 are out there.  There is now the ability of the newer entities to effectively feed off of the older ones. Evolution is at hand.

EyeBalls

The internet does not exist without eyeballs.  Journalism without eyeballs is a hobby.  We seek here a mechanism to attract eyeballs.   To do so we must all partake in the marketing process that our corporate overlords used to do for us.  The web promises this, but the sheer numbers of sites out there almost guarantee a fractured audience at best.

The web lacks relevant, engaging, trusted news sources to coalesce attention around.  

That is our goal.

That is where this project begins.

The Project

Since Brooklyn is our home, we will start here.

We see the world from a Brooklyn centric viewpoint.  It is as important, at least to us, as any other part of the world.  It will have as much focus, not more and not less, as other geographic region in the world. 

In fact, our myopic view sees several geographical categories... 

1. Gowanus Booklyn - Smith to 5th, Atlantic to 59th Street
2. Brownstone Brooklyn
3. Rest of Brooklyn
4. Rest of outer boros - (Queens, Bronx, Staten Island)
5. Rest of City (Manhattan)
6. The tri-state region - New York, New Jersey, Conneticut
7. Rest of the United States
8. Europe
9. Rest of the World
10. Beyond.

Now we know that as a first guess of categorization this won't be final.  But here is where we draw the line in the sand.  And start from there.

We are looking for :

• Reporters/Journalists/Writers/Photographers/Videographers who can craft quality Articles.
• Editors who can make sure these articles are fair and factually correct with an eye towards the story.
• Experts knowledgable in an area.  No degree necessary.  But a quick resource for the editors and journalists to go to for some guidance.
• Readers who value such work. And some who will make meaningful commentary that others can learn from.  Substance will triumph over snark.
• Still Standing Mainstream Media(SSMM) that will see the value of a properly written article that has had a fair amount of editorial oversight.  A complete article, if you will.  All at no staff cost.

What do we require from each of these groups?

• Writers -
• Submit CV and writing samples to editorial board. 
• If they like what they see you will be allowed to register to submit articles.
• Once you have registered, submit stories.
• Editors - 
• Review CVs and writing samples. 
• Review article submissions.
• Editors by invitation only for now. 
  
• Experts - 
• More than a working knowledge an area.  The ability to critique those who enter that realm.  Writers will look to experts for some guidance.  Editors will go to them when something needs verification.  Help the journalists and editors help themselves.
• Management - 
• Pick and choose which of these submitted articles are ready/appropriate.
• Archive or queue up stories.
• Releases stories on planned schedule.
• Release timely stories when necessary.
• Negotiate with media rights to any story in the collection.
• Readers - 
• People who want to experience a wider swath of good journalism that does not always fall to the media magnet areas.
• There are two levels.
• Window Shopper - Free (no registration).  Read at will.  No commenting available.
• Participant - Comment on articles.  Feedback into the system via tools to help focus the process.  $1/month billed annually in advance. 
• We expect you to read and comment.  But leave the snark at home.  Everyone is smarter than everyone else here.
• Media -  
• We know the world is changing under your feet.  You want readers, but the dynamics change constantly.  And you are constanly losing funding.  And staff.  And more quickly than any middle manager can possibly imagine.
• You register your media entity.  Depending on what level you register at, different story purchase rights are available.  Only those media who register can purchase stories and lock out other media.

Process

• Submission
• Review
• Acceptance
• Archiving of stories
• Queueing of stories.
• Placement of stories on website.
• Sales of some rights to media.

Risks.  And Rewards

Journalists:  You get no upfront monies.   That sucks.  And that will weed many a competent journalist out.  But, by participating in this sort of collective, the chances of the media seeing and possibly purchasing your articles are, in our opinion, much greater.  And you can rest assured that we want good writers.  So you can be anyone from anywhere.  If your work doesn't sell, at least it got some exposure.

Editors: You will work for no guarantee.  But you will share in the dollars generated by membership fees. 

Experts: You will work for no guarantee.  But you will share in the dollars generated by membership fees and article sales based on amount of involvment metrics. 

Readers: You will spend nothing to see the stories and comments.  But you will spend $1 per month participate in the evaluation of the articles/writers/editors.  And, due to a self-regulating comment nature, most useless snarky comments will be quickly buried.  Thus your signal to noise ration will be higher.

Media:  You will need to pay an annual fee to see archived content.  That is an up front cost.  But you will get to choose from a selection of vetted, edited articles.

As with anything else, there is much more legalese to come.  But if the idea intrigues you,

Email us at Journalism Project .

Hawk