Civil means journalism

Memberships available worldwide starting March 6

Update: Civil is now live! Become a member today.

Civil is back and better than ever. Full details below. But let’s put first things first: Civil is a community-run platform for independent journalism founded to advance trust and sustainability for journalism worldwide. The community members are news organizations and you, the public they serve.

Key takeaways:

• Newsrooms and the public can join Civil starting March 6th. That’s when our first products will go live: Civil Memberships, Civil Newsrooms and the Civil Registry.
• Nearly 100 newsrooms are signed on to join us this month across five continents — from Sacramento and Kansas City and Baltimore and New York to El Salvador and Prague and Manila and Tripoli. But any news organization can prepare to join us on March 6
• The public can join our community-run network by purchasing a Civil membership, which will let you discover new, independent voices, interact directly with journalists and other members, and support worthy journalism efforts around the world. All Civil memberships will include Civil tokens, which provide a say and share in how the platform evolves and grows. Plus, 100 percent of net proceeds from memberships go to the Civil Foundation to provide grants to support journalism worldwide.
• This is NOT just another “token sale”: there are no hard caps, soft caps or time limits. The entire experience happens on our own website. While there are still some elements that will feel unfamiliar if you’re new to blockchain, we made the token purchasing process as smooth and user-friendly as humanly possible. Token buyers and supporters of journalism can also donate directly to the Civil Foundation just by using a credit card.

We founded Civil to make an impact on the world using decentralization and network effects to create an alternative model to support journalism and the information needs of citizens. In fact, our core mission is evident with our partnership and support of the First Fleet newsrooms. We’ve made tremendous improvements that we’re excited to share with you on March 6. Most importantly, though, we have focused our core attention where it belongs: not on technology, but on journalism.

Our mission is to support independent journalism and restore trust in quality journalism.

We are a growing network of news organizations and supporters committed to a free press, civil discourse and public accountability. We champion self-sovereignty, cooperation and speaking truth to power. This is why we started Civil, and why we hope you’ll join us.

The problems facing journalism today are growing worse.

More than two thousand journalists have lost their jobs this year in the U.S. alone. This is just the latest alarming indication that the news industry sorely lacks a working business model. Meanwhile, more and more people acknowledge that the disproportionate power of centralized platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter deserves much of the blame. It’s time for something new.

Become a Civil member

When you join Civil as a member, 100 percent of the net proceeds will be donated to the Civil Foundation, an independent not-for-profit committed to supporting ethical journalism around the world. Led by former NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, the Civil Foundation’s mission is to provide needed tools and services to newsrooms, as well as allocate grants to fund journalism innovation, advocacy for standards of journalism ethics, community-building among publishers and the public and educational programming for newsrooms.

We’re looking for citizens who want to support a new model for journalism and who want to help run the platform where they get their news. That’s why members will also receive an equivalent number of Civil tokens relative to their financial contribution to the Civil Foundation. Everyone who has Civil tokens runs the Civil platform: they represent a member’s voting power within the Civil Registry and elsewhere on Civil. Since they’re backed by the blockchain, no company can take them away or make them disappear. You own Civil tokens the way you own a physical object.

You can use Civil tokens to vote and challenge unethical newsrooms on the Civil Registry. All newsrooms on Civil have to sign and abide by the Civil Constitution, which was developed in consultation with journalists, academics and ethicists all over the world, in order to remain in good-standing on the Civil Registry and continue publishing on the Civil platform. If you don’t think a vote was consistent with the Civil Constitution, you can appeal to the Civil Council. They’re a group of journalists, academics and free speech experts from all over the world. The Civil Council can rule on disputes and overturn community votes, but their power is not absolute. If enough members disagree, they can overrule the Council.

Thirty-four million Civil tokens will be priced by The Civil Media Company at $0.20 per CVL on March 6. Every token sold will trigger a slight price increase until the last token goes for $0.94 via a transparent, fixed and linear slope. There’s no time limit — it could take us years to sellout and that would be okay. Meanwhile, members could also choose to exchange CVL with each other at market prices. There will only ever be one hundred million Civil tokens in existence (thanks, blockchain!), and the Civil Registry ensures that the value of Civil tokens will forever be tied most directly to the health and scale of the community network.

Ultimately, this is a community response to a global crisis, so Civil members will also receive a members-only newsletter, community forum and events in order to meet hard-working journalists face-to-face as well as other journalism supporters from around the world.

What to expect on March 6

I am so proud of our team’s progress since last fall’s unsuccessful token sale, and the resilience we demonstrated in the face of skepticism and uncertainty. We conducted extensive user research (not to mention, soul searching) and as a result we made significant improvements to our positioning, messaging, user experience and support services. We said we would renew our focus on journalism, and that we have. On March 6, we will unveil our first products, and finally kickstart — for real this time — our humble attempt to make an impact on the world.

Here’s what will go live on March 6:

• Civil Memberships — Members of the public who want to support our mission will be able to purchase a Civil membership, including Civil tokens, from our website. We have dramatically improved the setup experience, but it still may be a bit of a process for newbies to blockchain. We highly encourage all supporters of our mission to try the new setup experience, but for those who aren’t ready, we will offer an option to simply donate to the Civil Foundation.
• Civil Newsrooms — News organizations can join Civil to access and interact with the global Civil community and partake of other benefits. All Civil newsrooms agree to abide by the journalism standards laid out in the Civil Constitution. Qualified newsrooms will receive a small grant of Civil tokens from the Civil Foundation; others can purchase memberships of at least $1,000. Once on Civil, newsrooms will have access to a wide range of benefits, including the ability to index and permanently archive their content to the blockchain using the Civil Publisher (initially limited to Wordpress users, but available for all later this year). Soon they will also be able to accept direct, peer-to-peer payments from members who wish to support them. Only Civil newsrooms in good-standing with the community may use products built on Civil. Nearly 100 newsrooms have signed to join Civil by the end of March.
• Civil Registry — This is Civil’s discovery and interaction hub where the public can find and support Civil newsrooms. This is also where our complete decentralized governance experience lives, allowing Civil members to vote and change the platform over time, even including proposing amendments to the Civil Constitution itself.

Why Blockchain?: Own your data. Own your content. Own the network.

Civil is emerging into a daunting environment for journalism. An assault on truth is raging worldwide. Our data is harvested by media platforms often without our knowledge or direct benefit. Publishers’ content is subject to rampant piracy and lack of credit or compensation.

Our aim is to provide every journalist and member on Civil with data sovereignty, meaning everyone will fully control their data, who has access to it, for what purpose and for what value or compensation. We also aim to provide every journalist and publisher with full control of their content to protect licensing rights and generate syndication revenue on their own terms. All of this will run on a platform governed by journalists and the public they serve, delivering a radically more trustworthy experience than the status quo.

All of this is uniquely enabled by blockchain and the new Civil platform. And it’s only the beginning.

Save the date: March 6

• Sign up for our newsletter to get first access to Civil.
• Share this post with someone else who loves journalism as much as you.
• Ask us questions or share feedback below to answer in our next post.

Civil wouldn’t be possible without the inspiring passion, tireless dedication and tremendous support of these key individuals and partners.

Matt Coolidge, Jon Ferrer, Walker Flynn, Toby Fox, Julia Himmel, Naima Jinnah, Dan Kinsley, Megan Libby, Jorge Lopez, Christine Mohan, Peter Ng, Rob Okrzesik, Nick Reynolds, Sarah Ruddy, Inna Shteinbuk, Olaf Tomalka, Nguyet Vuong, Mike Young from The Civil Media Company.

Nicole Bode, Elena Giralt, Sasha Koren, Ursula O’Kuinghttons, Lillian Ruiz, Vivian Schiller from Civil Foundation.

Josh Benson, Katherine Lehr, Tom McGeveran from Old Town Media.

Austin Mills, Rachel Neufeld from MMM. Ed Klaris, Alexia Bedat from Klaris Law.

Patrick Berarducci, John Chard, Shawn Cheng, Matt Corva, Josh Daniels, Ron Garrett, Amanda Gutterman, Mike Kriak, Joyce Lai, Joe Lubin, Frithjof Weinert from ConsenSys.

Thank you so much, and here’s to what comes next.

Note: Civil tokens are a consumer software product that provide the means to participate in and govern the Civil platform. However, they do not confer rights of any kind with respect to The Civil Media Company (or its affiliates), or their intellectual property or other assets.