Scoop Announcement:
Werewolf Launches 8th June!
A New Publication Edited By Gordon Campbell
Announcement from Scoop Co-Editor & Co-Founder Alastair Thompson
Scoop’s 10th birthday
In two weeks time - on Wednesday June 10 2009 - Scoop will be celebrating its 10th Birthday. Our 10th anniversary will mark what has been a unique media project – a news outlet created with a mission to enhance
democracy by informing the powerless about what the powerful are up to.
In 1999 Scoop was founded by a group of journalists who, even then, could see that the writing was on the wall for their
profession. 10 years on, Scoop has been transformed into a strong and vibrant company far removed from its start in a
shed in our backyard.
Today we have an audience of 500,000 people a month in New Zealand and around the world and a database of nearly 400,000
news items. On an average day we publish up to 200 items covering all aspects of New Zealand life and culture and a
healthy quota of international news and comment.
Our 10th anniversary is a time of celebration, but also a time for reflection. These are not halcyon days for news media
and the profession of journalism in New Zealand. Scoop, like any media outlet dependent on advertising, is being
affected by the global recession.
Scoop Sustaining Subscribers: Werewolf - A News Publication for the 21st Century
Today, we are launching a campaign to ask Scoop readers to help us to survive and grow through the current tough times,
and beyond. As a mark of our appreciation, we will be sending Scoop Sustaining Subscribers a new monthly email magazine
called Werewolf - consisting of exclusive articles on politics, business, music and the arts.
Werewolf will be edited and co-written by Gordon Campbell, and mailed out on the full moon of every month. Its
contributors will come from all corners of the New Zealand media scene. The next Full Moon is June 8th, just 2 days
before our 10th anniversary - and Werewolf will be unveiled that day.
We hope Werewolf will be a beacon for what online journalism can become - a place where we will assemble content from
some of the best of the new generation of online journalists. That is the Scoop vision: to provide a genuine,
alternative voice to the mainstream media.
Transition
It will take time, and commitment to get there. The old forms of print media may be dying on their feet but until we
reach the Promised Land, where online media can readily pay its own way, we will rely on advertising, and – we trust -
on your pledges of financial support.
Scoop is already at the forefront of the coming change in the news business in operating a viable online news service.
Over the past year we have worked to assist several of New Zealand's leading journalists such as Jeremy Rose (Scoop Books), Jonathan Underhill and Pattrick Smellie (Scoop Business) and our part time Scoop Political Editor Gordon Campbell to make a transition to earning a living online. Scoop is also busy outside of the Scoop tent supporting other new
online businesses like Pundit.co.nz and PublicAddress.net by helping them to grow and selling their advertising alongside with our own.
If enough readers come to the party, Scoop can continue to supply you with a fresh and alternative take on news
coverage. Enough Scoop Sustaining Subscribers would enable us to hire journalists to carry out independent research and
coverage of NZ politics and social issues. As an indication of scale Scoop would need around 300 sustaining subscribers
to finance the addition of one reporter to our team.
Become a Scoop Sustaining Subscriber - join the alternative to the mainstream media mind-set!
We are seeking your help to keep the story of Scoop going, to enable us to continue to do our job in a time when an
independent voice is needed even more than ever. If you are going to start paying for online news media why not pay for
a news media that is part of the solution, not the source of the problem?
If you agree to become a Scoop Sustaining Subscriber we are asking you to subscribe to pay $10, $15 (or more if you
choose) a month to Scoop. This can be done either via:
Automatic payment to our bank account:
Westpac - Scoop Media Ltd. 03-0502-0254668-000
Or via paypal using your credit card:
$10 Per Month Sustaining Subscription
$15 Per Month Sustaining Subscription
$25 Per Month Sustaining Subscription
Instead of spending $10 a month on magazines and newspapers, why not pledge that to sustaining one of the most promising
media prospects on the New Zealand media landscape today!
Other Ways to Support Scoop - Mostly Cashless
If you can't afford to support Scoop by way of a subscription (or do not wish to do so at this time), but do wish to
support our mission here are a variety of other ways you can support us through your actions:
1. Link to Scoop
If you are a blogger or have a website then place a link to http://www.scoop.co.nz in your blogroll or on your site.
2. Tell people about Scoop
Recommend us to your friends and send them links to stories they will find interesting. There is an email this page
button in the top right hand corner of all pages which makes this nice and easy.
3. Make Scoop Your Homepage
This is a relatively easy step to take which makes a big difference to us. More readers and users = more advertising
$$$.
4. Join the Scoop Facebook Group Or Become A Fan
This will help us keep in touch with you.
5. Follow the Scoop Twitter Feed
This will also help us keep in touch with you. From time to time we may encourage you to do things on behalf of our
advertising clients and usually there will be some kind of reward involved. It is very helpful if you read these
messages and respond to them if they are interesting to you.
6. Consider advertising on Scoop
Click on the above link for all the details.
ENDS