Civil Weekly Newsletter: 11/2 Edition
As we look ahead, some refreshing perspective.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be unveiling details on Civil’s official launch — including how publishers can become Civil newsrooms as well as how to get CVL tokens. We’ve never felt more optimistic about the future. We’re grateful for the learnings from last month’s token sale; they’re allowing us to form a stronger foundation for Civil that we believe will ensure this project’s long term success.
Others seem to feel the same. We wanted to call out two posts from this week, neither of which came from Civil, that offer valuable perspective:
“In the so called ‘failure’ of Civil to raise the funds needed to take its mission to the next level, they have never exhibited a more successful sheen than they do now.
Why? Because the strength of Civil’s mission continues to grow despite perceived setbacks and their leadership continues to push onward and upward. The idea of Civil is too important to be stopped. They will launch another token raise, and when they do, SingularDTV will buy CVL tokens to help contribute to their success. Their purpose for being is not only necessary, it is vital — Civil is building a new economy for trustworthy and sustainable journalism.”
— Zach LeBeau, SingularDTV CEO
“[Newsrooms are] in regular contact through Civil, they run the same software, and they provide each other with support. From the outside, it appears that Civil newsrooms know about one another and actually make efforts to collaborate. This alone is a breakthrough because this kind of newsroom collaboration is rarely seen outside the efforts of professional associations like INN or LION.
Civil provided a compelling vision of a future where important reporting is undertaken by upstart digital news sites that are all connected together by a shared idea. That idea, at its core, is simple: Let the people who care about journalism not only invest in it, but let them also have a say in how the system works.”
— Phillip Smith, media startup advisor, philanthropist and John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University
Want to share your own feedback as we prepare to launch? Please do so here.
This week in Civil: a new Newsroom, midterm mania and an incredible story of survival.
In these increasingly polarizing times, we need honest journalism more than ever. Civil is already home to 18 independent Newsrooms committed to producing ethical reporting, and engaging with their supporters in new, more direct manners.
Congratulations to The River for becoming the latest Newsroom to publish on Civil this week. In addition to the grant they received from Civil, The River’s team launched a Kickstarter campaign to help support initial operations this week.
Here are highlights from The River and the rest of Civil this week:
- An eclectic, upstart candidate is mounting an unexpected challenge to unseat “New York’s most corrupt Congressman.” The River shares an in-depth profile of Nate McMurray, and his unconventional path to the campaign trail.
- For the first time in history, there are three separate medical cannabis measures on a state ballot. As Cannabis Wire found, there’s a lot more to the story behind the complicated ballot choice — and the competing interests behind it.
- Jair Bolsonaro, the controversial politician and newly-elected president of Brazil, has long been a polarizing figure both at home and abroad. Yet, he received overwhelming support — more than 70 percent — from NYC-based voters. Documented looked at the factors that drove such support from New York-based Brazilian expats.
- “These are the bad times,” writes HmmDaily’s Tom Scocca, in a thoughtful, far-reaching essay.
- There are toxic dangers hiding in plain sight in Philadelphia — and ecoWURD found its most powerless residents are also the most vulnerable to these environmental hazards.
- Even after its government approved a more inclusive foreign investment law, 14ymedio found that Cuba is still struggling to attract investors.
- A 21-month old baby had no heartbeat for 55 minutes. Eight years later, there’s no clear medical explanation for how he survived. The latest piece on the Colorado Sun’s excellent “Survivors” series is a must-read.
- According to Sludge, private prison companies are spending a lot of money to boost Brian Kemp’s gubernatorial campaign in Georgia.
- “Birds aren’t real.” A growing conspiracy campaign, which argues that the U.S. government replaced birds with drones in 2001, highlights the post-truth era in which we’re living, says Block Club Chicago.
- As China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, Splice looked at how Taipei is emerging as a major hub for foreign media in Asia.
- Popula examined the distinctly U.S.-centric sentiment behind “Thank you for your service” — and how it came to be.
- What is fact-checking, really? Episode four of ZigZag tackled that question from a philosophical level, and examined its continued relevance in the current media climate.
- Andrew Gounardes is one of the few Republican lawmakers in Brooklyn. He spoke with FAQ NYC about the borough’s political realities, and shares his thoughts ahead of next week’s midterm elections.
- The GroundTruth Project recently commissioned three of its Film Fellows to report on the impact of Saudi Arabia’s often-overlooked war in Yemen. It will be featuring the output from this trip in the coming weeks; in the meantime, it posted a fascinating Q&A with one of the fellows on what she found during a rare reporting trip inside Yemen.
Be sure to follow @CivilStories on Twitter to access these stories every day.
Wherever we go, there we are.
Upcoming events Civil will be at include:
- Big Data + AI for Media Week [October 29-November 2, London]
- newsrewired [November 7, London]
- Crypto Cafe [November 7, Lisbon]
- European Broadcasting Union — the News Assembly [November 11, Edinburgh]
- VDZ Tech Summit [November 20, Hamburg]
For the latest Civil updates, follow us on Telegram, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
The Random Musing Section
Just a brief note this week, as I fight off a cold, and lingering jet lag (to those of you who frequently wake up at 3 AM and can’t fall back asleep, I feel your pain!).
We’ve decided to remove the “What We’re Reading” section from this newsletter. “This Week in Civil” has developed a life of its own as more and more Newsrooms have joined the Civil community. If you vehemently disagree with this decision, let me know. There are only so many links we can share to help guide your weekend reading, and we’d be remiss to not keep the spotlight on the excellent, original journalism being produced on Civil each and every day.
Similarly, you may also notice the new “Civil Weekly” banner atop this email — those faces belong to some of the journalists behind Civil Newsrooms. They’re the driving force for why we’re all here, and a testament to the fact that there is hope yet for independent journalism at a time when we desperately need more of it.
— Matt Coolidge
