Open Media Boston Celebrates 2nd Anniversary; Calls for Increased Community Support

Last weekend marked Open Media Boston's 2nd anniversary of weekly publication. Quite the milestone for this little "news outlet that could." When we first launched on March 20, 2008, OMB was just me and an idea that it was possible to start a professional metropolitan news operation with a progressive editorial stance using available social media technology despite my lack of ready cash. I gambled that I'd be able to attract a talented staff and build an audience even as I raised money to make the whole thing go. I figured it could work because the mainstream news media was (and is) in a great deal of financial trouble, and was (and is) laying off its core staff of reporters and editors. That sad fact had resulted in a "metropolitan news vacuum" that was not being filled by bloggers and other amateurs in a systematic enough way to make up for the loss of traditional news media. Leaving traditionally disenfranchised urban communities and the progressive labor and non-profit sectors that stick up for them unable to get much coverage on most key issues that they struggle with from day-to-day.

I figured if OMB moved into that gap in Boston, we might gain enough traction and public support to become a major media outlet over time. Initially, I gave the project 2 years to start paying staff. However, I thought it was important to spend the 1st year proving our concept to the communities we planned to serve. If we couldn't do a credible job of covering the news in those communities, then I felt there would be no point in trying to raise funds that might be better spent on other projects. But our 1st year came and went, and by that time I had a couple of other staff working with me, a number of regular contributors, good circulation numbers, and good reviews from folks in our communities of interest.

So we kept going and started fundraising. We continued to grow. Our circulation is now equivalent to a medium-sized community newspaper. Our staff is about to get up to 8 folks. We have over a dozen regular contributors and dozens more occasional contributors. We've had a few interns and will host a few more over the coming months. Our "street cred" is on the rise. Our "brand" is increasingly recognizable. All good signs.

Of course, we're still always hovering just above broke and still basically an all-volunteer labor of love. But it has become evident to us that OMB is now a valuable resource for thousands of Bostonians every week. We feel that our work is useful and helps build movements for peace, democracy and social justice in this corner of the world. So we're willing to keep the project going. "Damn the torpedoes" and all that.

However, we certainly have not given up on the idea that good media work should be paid work - and that everyone who works for OMB should be able to make a living wage. If we're going to survive and thrive over the long-term, and become the major news outlet we aspire to be, then we need the communities we serve to help us get bigger, better and more relevant by helping us raise the kind of budget that would make us a going concern for years to come.

In our latest winter appeal, we announced that we'd be launching a cooperative as soon as possible - which will allow people who support us financially to become members of our coop. Which in turn will make them social investors instead of just donors. And which we believe will have the effect of making us more responsive to the communities we serve, and make our cooperators feel really organically connected to our work. Even if we never turn a profit as a coop. [Not that we're ruling that out.] But it takes months of work to form a coop. And all the work we do on getting one going has to be balanced with keeping our news operation humming along - making it slow going at times.

So we just want to strongly encourage our viewers to keep signing up to be future cooperators, and let you know that folks that do will be invited to meetings we'll be holding to found the coop. Basically, everyone who joins up now gets to help us figure out how the coop will be run.

We'd further encourage progressive organizations and institutions - including the aforementioned labor unions and non-profits - to start thinking about investing in our coop. The same goes for individuals with the means to make a more significant investment in OMB. We need what amounts to a good chunk of start-up cash to be able to start paying our staff, and ultimately remunerate contributors.

The payoff for helping us reach our financial goals is that Boston will be home to a community-focused progressive news publication that will be second to none. And if we can make our project really work as planned, we can help found similar publications across the nation. At a time when the left-wing really needs to get its message out as broadly and consistently as possible.

I mean imagine if we had a strong left news media over the last year. Think about the terrible health care bill that Pres. Barrack Obama just signed into law this week. The one that's essentially a massive giveaway to the same health care corporations that have destroyed the American health care system - insufficient though it has always been. If we had dozens of metro publications joining with key national publications in hammering away at the plan, deflecting right-wing nonsense, and editorializing strongly in favor of a single-payer health care plan for the U.S., I think the bill that passed would be far better than what we ultimately got. And streets better for America's working families than anything we've ever had before.

Good news media is critical to our democracy, and there's less and less of it to go around. Good news media with a progressive editorial stance is an even rarer bird. If we make a go with OMB here in Boston, it will be a sign that similar projects can make it elsewhere. But we can only do it with real material support from our core constituencies.

So if you've got $35 or more burning a hole in your pocket, click our big red "Donate to OMB" button in the top left corner of every page here on the Open Media Boston website, and send it our way. Then you can help us get our coop started, get our staff paid, and give Boston a progressive news outlet that will do the city proud.

We've done a lot in 2 years. If we keep going for a few more years, we'll do a lot more.

Thanks for any help you can give towards that goal. And thanks for all the support you've given us over our first 2 years. We are truly gratified, and pleased so many people have helped us do our bit to help build a better society.

Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston