proposal for review
Tony
My apologies for sending out the proposal so late. Please take a look
and come to the meeting tomorrow (Wed. nite) with some ideas for
improvement.
See you tomorrow.
Purpose:
We propose the creation of a nonprofit and nonpartisan media
organization focused on providing high-quality investigative,
analytical, and explanatory journalism online. Our goal is to fill
the vacuum left by the decline of traditional news organizations, to
attract new audiences who are increasingly turning to the web, and to
inspire informed action in the public interest. Our geographical
scope is the state of Oregon and our topical focus is public policy,
politics, and government. We believe that great online journalism
should provide what great print and broadcast journalism provide,
while also making the best of what the web has to offer.
Characteristics of great online journalism:
Multimedia. We will provide more than mere text and static images,
but also dynamic audio, video, and graphics designed to develop a rich
sensory understanding of complex issues and stories. Our audience
will rely on us for great writing, photography, and cartoons, but at
our site they will also find excellent audio slide shows, video
interviews, animated film, and interactive graphics. This integrated
multimedia approach will add compelling new dimensions to stories and
will appeal to diverse audiences who absorb and process information in
different ways.
Interactive. Our site will serve as a source for great information,
but will also provide the public with an opportunity to contribute to
creating new knowledge. Those who access the site will be encouraged
to offer suggestions for stories, to supply relevant information
solicited by professional journalists, and to comment on published
stories.
Enhanced understanding. Besides offering clear, accurate and rigorous
reporting about important topics, we will return to those topics
repeatedly, link our stories, and in turn give our users the
opportunity to gain a deeper and more complex understanding of those
topics.
Engaging. Viewers of our site will not only find useful information
about key issues, but also ways to engage with that information more
actively. Stories on our website will appear alongside user
interfaces and links that allow viewers to examine related public
records and other relevant data. They will also find information
about relevant public meetings and events to encourage greater civic
participation.
Our staff:
Our staff will include an editor-in-chief, a managing editor, a team
of reporters and contributing reporters, contributing photographers, a
multimedia designer and a software engineer, and a business
development associate.
How we will sustain ourselves:
We are prepared to explore a number of funding options, including:
foundation support, individual large donations, member donations,
underwriting (as opposed to advertising), the syndication of our
content, and the solicitation of support for particular stories. We
will also welcome partnerships with other print, broadcast and online
media organizations to help us better leverage our resources and
disseminate our stories.