How to Launch a Newsroom on Civil (and Thoughts on Community-Driven Checks and Balances)
Civil is on track to launch in the near future. As anticipation grows, so too have inquiries about how this whole thing is going to work. Questions tend to fall into several buckets:
- “If you’re not taking a cut from citizens’ payments to Newsrooms, then how is The Civil Media Company going to make money?” (This way.)
- “Do I need to be an expert in blockchain to use Civil?” (No.)
- “Where’s the white paper?” (we’ll be publishing our final white paper — and specific details around our CVL token launch — in the coming weeks).
By far the most common question we get, though, is “How can I get involved?”
The first answer is, “Support quality journalism… And we hope you’ll do it on Civil Newsrooms when we launch. You can find Civil’s initial Newsrooms here and sign up for their respective mailing lists for preview content and updates on their respective launches.”
But many are more interested in going even deeper, and launching their own Newsroom.
The short answer, when Civil launches, is “anybody can apply to launch a Newsroom on Civil.”
To do so, a prospective Newsroom must be added to the Civil Registry, a white list of Newsrooms that the community has recognized as meeting the standards outlined by the Civil Constitution, to unlock publishing rights on Civil.
In broader terms, this means the members of Civil’s decentralized self-governance system — those individuals possessing CVL tokens — determine which Newsrooms do (and do not) adhere to the Civil Constitution. This is what makes Civil truly different from other journalism models; we’re introducing economic (CVL tokens, which represent ownership in the network — and which are the only way to cast a vote for/against Newsrooms), as well as ideological (because journalism matters, and it’s in need of a new funding model), incentive system.
Any interested party can apply to launch a Newsroom — but they must be accepted to the Civil Registry, a white list of Newsrooms that the community has recognized as meeting the standards outlined by the Civil Constitution, to unlock publishing rights on Civil.
To be included on the Civil Registry, a prospective Newsroom must take four steps:
- Submit a charter (what will you cover, why does it matter — and why are you uniquely poised to do so?)
- Submit a roster (who else is involved with this Newsroom)
- Pledge to abide by the Civil Constitution (a forthcoming document that broadly defines what does — and does not — constitute ethical journalism on Civil. It will be the framework from which all challenges to whether a Newsroom should be listed on the Civil Registry will be based)
- Stake CVL tokens (a fixed amount that will be a significant, but not prohibitive, sum; this states the seriousness of your intent — proving that you’ve thought about this and believe yours will be a valuable addition to the network. It also acts as a hedge against frivolous applicants, trolls, spammers and malicious actors).
Once the CVL is staked, the application will be public and the community will be notified. If each of the above parameters are met, and the community is satisfied that the prospective Newsroom will be a quality addition to the Civil marketplace, they’ll take no action — and the Newsroom will be added to the Civil Registry after a finite waiting period (days, not weeks).
If, however, anybody in the Civil community feels that a prospective Newsroom is in violation of any of the journalistic ethics outlined by the Civil Constitution, they can challenge the application by staking a matching total of CVL. The individual (or individuals) mounting the challenge process must demonstrate to the community why they believe the prospective Newsroom is in violation of the Civil Constitution. A community vote will then occur, and anybody in possession of CVL may participate. The “winning” party will retain its deposit and will also gain the “losing” party’s deposit — with approximately half going to the original applicant/challenger, and the remainder being proportionately distributed to voters for the winning party (voters for the losing party won’t lose tokens).
This process of challenging newsrooms for violating the Civil Constitution also applies to Newsrooms that are already on the Civil Registry.
If CVL represents an economic game — “spot the unethical Newsroom” — then the Civil Constitution is the rulebook for that game, which is designed to ensure rational behavior and a high quality filter for publishing on Civil.
Introducing Checks and Balances Into the System
We recognize that edge case scenarios could conceivably emerge to test this system. What happens, for instance, if the community votes for/against a Newsroom, even if the consensus is clearly in opposition to one of the principles core journalistic ethics stated in the Civil Constitution?
For that, there will be the Civil Council — an independent, nonprofit organization tasked with the mission of upholding and advocating for the core values defined in the Civil Constitution.
It will include free speech lawyers, veteran journalists and journalism and constitutional scholars. It will act as an appeals body capable of overturning community decisions if it’s proved they’re in direct violation of the Civil Constitution. These should be rare, precedent-setting events that will inform the community in future votes — and which can only be overturned by a supermajority veto from the community.
Introducing the Civil Foundation
The Civil Media Company will also instantiate an independent, nonprofit to house the voting members of the Council as well as support staff such as researchers, auditors and translators. The Foundation will work to develop ways for the Civil Council to evolve in the following, community-led ways over time:
- Scale — The Council will need to grow in a correlative fashion with the network size in order to manage the increasing number of appeals, amendments, and general platform issues.
- Diversity — The Council will need fresh new faces/voices over time in order to remain a representative body for the network at large, especially as we become more global in nature.
- Decentralization — The Council should move beyond its Civil Media Company-initiated inception toward a future where its largely representative of the network at large, possibly through elections or similarly democratic procedures.
- Resources — The Council will need to finance its operations in order to maintain quality oversight over time. The community will need to determine the best method for this entity to generate sustainable operating capital without creating points of weakness or misalignment.
We — the Civil Media Company — do not expect to answer all these questions ahead of our general launch, and recognize the importance of realizing community consensus around the Civil Council’s long term role.
We’ve been working alongside external blockchain and cryptoeconomic experts, legal advisers and Civil’s First Fleet Newsmakers to develop the initial version of the Civil Constitution. It, more than anything else, will be what makes Civil a different and — we hope — better option for consuming quality, trustworthy journalism.
We’ll be publishing the Civil Constitution next week; it’s going to be a major milestone for us, and will give prospective Civil Newsrooms needed context to begin readying applications ahead of our general platform launch.
