Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
June 18, 2018 -- ADVFN Crytpo NewsWire -- Yesterday,
the New York Times
reported that several former Denver Post journalists and
editorial staff have teamed up with a ConsenSys startup called the Civil Media Company
in order to start a Blockchain-based, local news outlet.
The New York Times stated that the
outlet plans to be an online newspaper that reports on local,
Colorado stories, called the Colorado Sun. What isn’t quite clear
is exactly how the Blockchain will give such a venture a
competitive advantage.
Apparently, The Sun will use a
Blockchain which will be provided by the Civil Media Company, to
store any data that it generates and uses. All in all, the Colorado
Sun aims to be, according to Coin Telegraph, a venture that is not
only well-supported by its local community but also completely
owned by the journalists that work for it.
This form of ownership, which was
inspired by the heavy interference of the Post’s owners in the
editorial process, could lead to another use case for the
Blockchain, on top of what has already been mentioned.
If the company is owned by its
employees, then everything that it does could be disclosed openly
on its private blockchain, in order to promote transparency and
therefore the view that equal ownership exists, across the
business.
According to the same report by Coin
Telegraph, the Sun also wants to be a news site that is focused
on journalism which analyzes and explores the changes that Colorado
is undergoing, while remaining ad-free.
Given that almost every traditional
newspaper is moving more towards completely depending on
advertisements, the Sun’s choice poses an interesting
question.
How can an online newspaper sustain
a consistent revenue stream without advertisements? As of now,
what’s clear is that it is beginning by running a Kickstarter campaign,
with the goal of raising $75,000 to get the business
going.
On their Kickstarter page, they
also clarified their business model, saying that the outlet would
be subscription based as well as dependent on donations.
At this point, it is natural to
wonder what their differentiators will be to set them apart from
traditional newspapers, which are now typically dependent on
subscriptions in addition to revenue from
advertisements.
What this comes down to
is Civil Media Company’s grand vision, as it will
effectively act as the parent company for the Colorado Sun as well
as around 1,000 similar firms that it plans to lead, this
year.
Both the Colorado Sun and the Civil
Media Company are trying to solve the central problems of the
journalism industry today, which they see as being the facts that
it is ad-driven as well as that what is published depends on what
the shareholders in a small group of private companies want to
see.
In short, these companies want to
put journalism back into the hands of the common man.
In the case of the Sun, this means
that they want to be the place where the average Colorado citizen
can read about what it means to live “the Colorado Lifestyle,” as
well as read stories about politics, business and the environment
that aren’t usually covered in traditional news outlets.
This is their big draw, put
together with the fact that all of their writers and editors are
already apparently trusted voices in the industry.
As of now, as mentioned above, the
Blockchain could be used to promote consistent trust in the
business, but it isn’t clear whether the Sun plans to do this or
not, at this point.
As the Kickstarter campaign ends
and the site goes live, it will be interesting to see if it can
consistently generate revenue, while operating in opposition to the
industry’s prevailing business model.
By: BGN Editorial Staff
News:
Blockchain
Consensys