Crowdfunding Scoop

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, February 20th, 2015 - 30 comments
Categories: journalism, Media - Tags: , ,

As previously noted, the team at Scoop are re-inventing themselves via a public conversation on the state of the media. They now have a crowdfunding page up at Pledgeme:

We plan to transform into a not-for-profit media organisation held for the benefit of all NZers, accountable to the community of news communicators and consumers it serves
…
Scoop is seeking one-off funding of $30,000 to enable this transformation

If you value independent news and investigative journalism please go and give them a hand at Pledgeme…

30 comments on “Crowdfunding Scoop ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. infused 1
    20 February 2015 at 10:56 am

    Good luck. Not sure anyone reads it.

    • Naturesong 1.1
      20 February 2015 at 11:19 am

      I do.

      It’s a good reality check to compare Herald and Stuff content to the press releases of political parties, lobby groups etc on Scoop.

      Gordon Campbell is also worth reading. He really does his research and provides detailed context.

      • infused 1.1.1
        20 February 2015 at 11:47 am

        That’s all it is. A press release site.

        • Naturesong 1.1.1.1
          20 February 2015 at 11:53 am

          Have a read through, theres more than just press releases.

          The good thing though, is that reading Scoop, it is easy to identify which articles are press releases – they’re labelled as such and the source credited.
          With Stuff and Herald it’s a lot harder to distingish lobby and party press releases from actual reporting.

          I’d rather know from where the news I read is sourced.

        • Colonial Rawshark 1.1.1.2
          20 February 2015 at 9:39 pm

          The mainstream media are now 90% PR sites. At least Scoop prides itself on actual journalism.

    • Stephanie Rodgers 1.2
      20 February 2015 at 2:59 pm

      “Scoop is read by more than 400,000 people each month”
      http://www.scoop.co.nz/about/submit.html

      • Jan Rivers 1.2.1
        20 February 2015 at 9:18 pm

        I’ll give a brief example of why Scoop is so important to our democracy.

        On Tuesday 19 June last year I received an email detailing a trade agreement that I had never heard of. It’s called TISA which is the acronym to describe the Trade in Services Agreement.

        It linked to a comprehensive report on the trade agreement and said it was a risk to public services as it assumed they were delivered best by private companies and that implementing TISA would create a permanent sinking lid on the public sector. It said New Zealand was involved. I’m a bit of a news junky so I wondered why I hadn’t heard of it.

        I searched all the NZ media websites seeking information about TISA and TAKE A BOW Scoop Media and the ODT’s Bruce Munro. Scoop had 8 (yes eight) stories covering TISA and the ODT had at least a passing mention. The rest of the NZ media had nothing.

        The following day the financial services chapter of this agreement was released by Wikileaks and in the following week there was a smattering of media coverage but nothing in the mainstream media that covered the public services aspect of the agreement

        Bizzarely the NBR had a cartoon about the TISA but no substantive story. A week later the number of stories on Scoop has almost doubled to 15.

        To me this means that without Scoop there would have been no media coverage about this important negotiation and that’s why I’m supporting the crowd-funding effort and I encourage Standard readers to do the same.

        • greywarshark 1.2.1.1
          20 February 2015 at 9:25 pm

          Perhpas the put-down for the wilfully ignorant media dilettantes that we have to endure here in NZ would be ‘the Sergeant Schultz lot’. The ‘I know nuzzing’ lot that has been shown up by the search for TISA coverage done by commenter Jan Rivers above.

    • greywarshark 1.3
      20 February 2015 at 9:26 pm

      No one in infused’s circle reads it. But perhaps its a vicious circle!

    • Clemgeopin 1.4
      22 February 2015 at 1:54 am

      If you don’t wish to contribute, fine, but why be nasty?
      What IS wrong with you, RWNjobs?

  2. Jan Rivers 2
    20 February 2015 at 11:12 pm

    To give another couple of examples.

    Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s major speech this Monday on climate change. In the rest of the NZ media – the web based media at least – from NBR to Stuff Herald and TVNZ not a single mention. Whereas Scoop has not only the press release but the entire speech as an attachment. It was regarded as so significant in the circles of people who heard about it that I received the PDF from 3 separate people.

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1502/S00195/step-up-on-climate-change-needed-now.htm

    Auckland Barrister Frances Joychild wrote a major article about the impacts to people needing help with civil cases and their lawyers because of changes to Legal Aid so that only the very poorest are eligible. The tales of desperation she describes are heart breaking and could happen to any of us. Courts are stuffed with desperate people trying to represent themselves or worse taking the law into their own hands.

    http://www.adls.org.nz/for-the-profession/news-and-opinion/2015/2/5/continuing-the-conversation-%E2%80%A6-the-fading-star-of-the-rule-of-law/

    Although it was widely circulated to the media it appears no news site published a story about it in the mainstream media – at least in the media web sites. If it weren’t for Scoop this story would not have gone beyond Frances’ legal colleagues. Happily it did. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1502/S00184/the-crisis-in-new-zealands-civil-justice-system.htm

  3. Clemgeopin 3
    21 February 2015 at 1:14 pm

    After reading this post and the comments, I have decided to make a contribution to this worthwhile fund.

  4. alastair thompson 4
    21 February 2015 at 11:18 pm

    Thankyou Naturesong, Colonial Rawshark, Stephanie and Jan Rivers for your kind words.

    And Clemgeopin thankyou for your support!

    I would be happy to check in and answer any questions anyone poses in this thread about what we are doing.

    Alastair
    Scoop

    • r0b 4.1
      21 February 2015 at 11:23 pm

      Great – thanks for stopping by alastair!

    • Pete George 4.2
      22 February 2015 at 6:56 am

      Alastair – I think Scoop is a very useful research resource but I don’t think it’s seen much as a go-to site for keeping up with things as they happen. I sometimes got to Scoop to try and find things I can’t find elsewhere but don’t see it featuring in the social media daily news buzz.

      Do you intend keeping Scoop as a one stop shop? Or have you considered splitting it, retaining a functional reference resource while also having one or more topical and more focussed front end sites?

  5. alastair thompson 5
    22 February 2015 at 1:47 pm

    Hi Pete. It is sort of headed that way already with Scoop directing traffic to Wellington.Scoop, Pacific.Scoop, ParliamentToday.co.nz, Gordon’s Werewolf and external websites like Public Address, The Standard, Dimpost etc.

    Our sustainability plan is for the “functional resource center” part of Scoop to remain the main driver of traffic and revenue – and to bring eyeballs to new news websites of other kinds.

    That said the serious levels of traffic do seem to continue to congregate around the main http://www.scoop.co.nz domain so it makes sense to keep that delivering “news” as well as releases.

    Al

    • Pete George 5.1
      22 February 2015 at 4:17 pm

      “with Scoop directing traffic to Wellington.Scoop, Pacific.Scoop, ParliamentToday.co.nz, Gordon’s Werewolf and external websites like Public Address, The Standard, Dimpost etc.”

      Doesn’t that look a bit, ah, one directional and perceptionally partisan?

      • Clemgeopin 5.1.1
        22 February 2015 at 4:40 pm

        Do you understand what “etc” means?

        More importantly, are you planning to contribute some money?

        • Pete George 5.1.1.1
          22 February 2015 at 4:54 pm

          Do you understand what “Public Address, The Standard, Dimpost etc.” will look like to many people?

          I’m puzzled why you want to know what media I might financially support (but for the record, only ever my own to date). But I’ve considered contributing to Scoop in some way. I certainly want to see Scoop continue and evolve.

          • One Anonymous Bloke 5.1.1.1.1
            22 February 2015 at 5:02 pm

            Do have any evidence that you have any notion what ‘many people’ think? Have you fact-checked that assertion, Racist George?

          • Clemgeopin 5.1.1.1.2
            22 February 2015 at 5:08 pm

            “I’ve considered contributing to Scoop in some way”

            “in Some way”? Like what? like ‘trolling’, like being an ‘irritating pest’ and like trying to ‘put their fundraising effort down’?

            You are quite an annoying sick puppy. A disgrace. Shame on you.

            • Pete George 5.1.1.1.2.1
              22 February 2015 at 5:12 pm

              That’s an odd response after an odd initial comment. Were you just looking for an excuse to rant?

              Do you think anyone would want to contribute to a website that directs traffic to a blog with commenters like you?

            • One Anonymous Bloke 5.1.1.1.2.2
              22 February 2015 at 5:19 pm

              He means trying to use it to spread beige racist lies.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 5.1.2
        22 February 2015 at 4:45 pm

        Hey, Racist George, do you mean it looks “one directional and perceptionally partisan” to you and other racists, or that it looks that way through a beige lens, or you have fact checked evidence that someone credible thinks that?

  6. marty mars 6
    22 February 2015 at 5:32 pm

    I wish scoop every success – we need this type of independent news site and I for 1 have sourced very good information from scoop. Kia kaha scoop!

  7. Clemgeopin 7
    28 February 2015 at 2:57 pm

    Update #2 – 42% Funded : And an interesting Endorsement From A George Bush I Cabinet Member!

    Go to ‘updates’ link under:

    https://www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/3215-help-scoop-co-nz-to-fly-in-2015