AUCKLAND (Radio New Zealand/Scoop Media/Pacific Media Watch): Radio New Zealand's Mediawatch has featured independent news group Scoop Media and its campaign for crowd funding and a relaunch of public media in the country.
"We believe that access to independent news and investigative journalism is a public right that is essential for democracy to thrive," says founding general manager Alastair Thompson, who was interviewed by Mediawatch host Colin Peacock.
"But it is a public right that is eroding. Digital technology now enables a business model to be developed that makes news freely accessible to all citizens, and in which the news apparatus itself can be transparent."
Presenter Peacock outlined the independent features of Scoop, which including publishing press releases from "just about everybody in New Zealand" to provide transparency to the news-gathering process.
"But it also has lots of content you won't find elsewhere. It has pages of news from Wellington and Auckland and Pacific news in conjunction with the AUT University's Pacific Pacific Media Centre," says Peacock.
"It hosts opinion pieces from contributors from both here and overseas, many of them leaning broadly to the left. And there is also a monthly online magazine, Werewolf, edited by veteran journalist Gordon Campbell."
Listen here at 6m55s:
Creating a new kind of public news organisation has led to Scoop establishing its "Operation Chrysalis" campaign involving a national crowd funding appeal.
Bold step
"We are taking a bold step to preserve the public right to access news. We plan to transform into a not-for-profit media organisation held for the benefit of all New Zealanders, accountable to the community of news communicators and consumers it serves," says Thompson.
Founded in 1999, Scoop is New Zealand's oldest and largest independent online news service.
"We have described ourselves as fiercely independent for more than a decade and we would like to stay that way," Thompson says.
"For 16 years we have honoured New Zealanders participation in Scoop through commitment to public good purposes and holding the powerful to account.
"This year, like a caterpillar metamorphosing into a butterfly we want to grow wings and fly.
By making Scoop’s connection to the public and contributors more explicit, Thompson says that it is hoped to achieve a level of support and sustainability that would enable Scoop to "fly as a community asset".
Scoop is seeking one-off funding of $30,000 to enable this transformation.
Politics, business
Scoop is a small and highly efficient operation and has a monthly audience of about 500,000, comparable to Radio New Zealand.
The team is led by editor and publisher Alastair Thompson, a journalist with 26 years of experience reporting mainly on politics and business.
For the past decade Scoop’s production and front page story selection has been primarily managed by news editor Lyndon Hood, a stellar satirist.
Sales and customer relations have been the department of business development manager Steven Wood for the past five plusf years. Political editor Gordon Campbell splits his time between Scoop and his own editorial magazine project Werewolf.co.nz.
The editorial team is rounded out with duty editor Jackie Little, Wellington Scoop editor Lindsay Shelton who edits the Wellington.scoop.co.nz website and editorial intern Jeremy Wilkinson.
Scoop also publishes several websites in joint ventures with other media companies, bloggers and organisations, including:
ParliamentToday.co.nz (with InHouse Broadcasting)
Pacific.scoop.co.nz (with AUT University's Pacific Media Center led by professor David Robie)
Community.scoop.co.nz (with Comm Voices)
Business.scoop.co.nz (with BusinessDesk)
Books.scoop.co.nz (with Alison McCulloch).
Find out more about Scoop's Operation Chrysalis
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
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