“Indymedia”:http://www.indymedia.org/ and similar sites – created by unpaid, largely un-edited reporters – are one way in which the Internet is enabling alternative voices to be heard more widely, but this publishing model has its weaknesses. Because participants are unprofessional and unpaid, there tends to be more opinion venting and comments on existing coverage than original research. Also, the lack of editing means contributions can be ungrammatical, unreadable or even occaisionally “anti-semitic or racist rantings”:http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=44851. While many Indymedia sites have now started to hide or remove such postings, the problem is still bad enough that it is hindering the acceptance of Indymedia sites by the mainstream media and even “search engines”:http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/09/1639862_comment.php.
The New Standard wants to be a different kind of alternative media entity- one a lot closer to traditional news sources. It intends to pay its contributors to do real investigative research not just produce opinion pieces, and it will “charge its readers”:http://newstandardnews.net/promo/membership.cfm $4 to $10 a month when it launches in December.
While I do believe that some kind of editorial process is needed to make alternative media that is effective, and that this requires money, I am not convinced that a subscription at this level will work as a model. After all, Salon – one of the only (barely) successful subscription based sites that doesn’t offer “must have” news like financial or sports information – charges Utne Magazine which has a $20 online edition or the “Village Voice”:http://www.villagevoice.com/). The creators of the New Standard won’t have the overheads of print publications and “don’t intend to take advertising”:http://newstandardnews.net/promo/faq_biz-model.cfm#whynoadvertising because, “most ad-driven media outlets are influenced by the commercial institutions on which they depend”.
I have to admit that I am a little pessimistic about this venture’s chances unless it finds a few deep-pocketed sponsors (they will take grant money) but I have to encourage such a brave and innovative project and hope that it succeeds or at least encourages others to make similar experiments.
