Outriders. Phase 1.
I promised to share a little about what comes next for me after yesterday’s announcement of me leaving ePaństwo Foundation. Here we go.
With some nerves I present to you — Outriders. A new initiative focused on original reporting, providing global perspective through innovative storytelling.
Why?
Truth keeps us healthy.
To say journalism is in crisis is like to announce that sky is blue. I never blamed journalism itself nor blamed journalists for lack of some skills which would help them to adjust to new times. The whole ecosystem has changed — advertisers, publishers, readers… Journalistic values are the weakest link in it. They have to be protected — not eaten. Yet somehow it went the other way. We haven’t seen any major problems on a massive scale with the collapse of watchdogging, investigative reporting, war correspondence until…. in the “post-truth” year it blew up in many faces.
As a blogger I am on the rise for the past decade. More viewers, more skills, better content, bigger audience. BUT the trust of people and my responsibility are the biggest drivers for me. They also allow me as an individual to grow when institutions (as media for example) go down. The audience seeks someone worth hanging on to.
I want to try to combine all my previous experience — as a blogger, startupper, NGO, reporter. And I invite you all to join in.
Understand, not fear
Foreign correspondents are becoming “a myth” every day as newspapers announce another layoffs. How can we expect societies who have less and less first hand information about other cultures to understand them? I am not saying: like, love, cheer. But understand. Knowledge overcomes the fear. We will not be telling you what to think but you need the FULL information.
Passion
Simply. We have passion for every word in this article and every line of code, picture, characters in the stories to come. I learnt with my work at ePaństwo Foundation that if you believe in something and go forward — impossible happens.
How?
I want to create a bridge for culture and societies
I bridge worlds. I go to places and meet people. Introduce them to other people. I build communities and networks. I am in between many realities and I treat this as a huge advantage because in times of tribal communication we need… outriders! :) (I sung it in my head :)
Original reporting
We go, see, check, re-check and publish. We seek people who understand culture, societies, nations. We interview and discuss.
We are not in the news industry. Here we cannot compete. We will probably “be too late”. Sometimes you may even forget about the topic we will publish about. But good stories take time. This will not change. I can promise you we will be late, ha!
Global perspective
We provide a view from many sides. If a story in Poland talks about Hungary — we reach out to all parties.
Innovative storytelling
We are not in publishing. We are doing this as mission driven creators. Information and value of the story comes first. Yet we get inspired by internet creators, reportages, reporters, art, photographers, coders. We will try to bridge those worlds, too.
Rules
I created a small set of basic guidelines for myself:
- I experiment and test new things. I try to go to places where others don’t. Both as a reporter and as a media innovator. This is why we chose such a name: Outriders.
- I am not afraid of failure. I don’t like it, but I’m okay when it happens. My image too :)
- I share what I learn. I partner with others so change is achieved not only by me. My partners have to put audience, mission and values first. The traffic will come. Maybe. ?? Probably?
- I am aware of what I can accomplish as a single person. I under promise and try to overdeliver.
- Believing is better than over-thinking
Who will pay for that?
For next couple months we have saved up some small money to do it on our own and have time to show what we can try to achieve by stories. We will try to seek both crowdfunding and donor funding. I am very excited about trying to combine both and seeing first hand how (and if) this can be accomplished so it’s understandable to you as readers. One thing is for sure — funding will be very transparently communicated. (I have many thoughts here which deserve a separate blogpost)
Ow, one note: No, we are not a startup seeking a new genious model to save the media with some app. We are mission driven and we do stories. We will fight for them however we can. (see Rule 2)
What is Phase 1?
Initially we wanted to make a bigger launch today. Instead I ask for your patience. When we make promises we have to deliver. We need time to think some things through and talk to even more people. By this time I asked over 15 mentors (bloggers, media experts, reporters, journalists) to challenge me and their hard words were great for where we are now.
Phase 1: Assemble (some will get the joke ;)
- We focus on stories
- We nail down the final spirit
- We seek partners
- We build a network of fellow Outriders
- For now we are in Beta (hopefully not like Gmail was!)
If you want to talk please do reach out to us. You are always welcome to share and discuss.
What?
Mixture
I want to combine the best things from blogging, storytelling, journalism, NGOs and startups. So let’s call Outriders “an initiative” for now. The rest will come as we go.
//One good story is worth… someone wise.
Stories
We set an ambitious goal of publishing one story every 4–6 weeks. One report or deep analysis presented in a kick-ass form. This is a lot. Though “10–12” in 2017 — sounds like “huh?”.
Yes, if you got excited by this moment that we will unleash the storytelling platform within weeks — well, sorry :)
Tools
I have ideas for reporting tools and skillsets which I intend to share and release. They demand extra funding and time — so no promises here. My main deliverable this year is stories. I will share ideas here on Medium and on various conferences.
Experience
We share our knowledge. Both nonprofit and for-profit. We experiment so we can implement things for others.
Who?
Anna and Jakub
By this time you have noticed that in this article I say “I” or “we”. It’s time to present my silent partner but equally important. Anna Górnicka — former journalist, great blogger and storyteller. You will see her more in Phase 2. But watch out.
Is it only going to be you?
Nope. We will be partnering with other journalists, bloggers and media outlets trying to utilize the Outriders network (see rule number 4)
“Team”
I believe in growing with people. When you find the right ones don’t let them go. We are lucky to have found most amazing graphic designer ever. Awesome coders. Talented photographers. Interesting sketchers. We are not a team from the operations point of view. But for past years we have done things together and we communicate with less and less words :) (not sure that’s good, but you know what I mean)
Where?
Outriders’ base of operations: http://outride.rs — for now on the mainpage you will only see my happy face asking you to subscribe. As said, we intend to publish regularly on a monthly basis. Before we fill the whole site it will take some time. I also want your focus on the stories not on the front.
Outriders’ pidgeon: the best way to get stories is to subscribe to the newsletter. Distribution is key and we will be touching this topic as we go, but this ensures that you get stories when they are published.
Outriders’ garage: here on Medium I will share progress of our development.
Outriders’ cantine: if you want to help us and have early access to the stories + you don’t mind being asked for opinion + you want to join others like you: here is a secret group on Facebook.
My other channels include: Twitter, YT, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn and private FB.
First stories
World 2016
Here is a preview of the first interactive released in next days: World 2016. It will include commentary from experts and reporters about certain events and I know that everyone already summarized the year. But to get commentary and some perspective you need time. To code it as well. One promise … delivered :)
Media access to Parliaments worldwide
Migrants in Cyprus
Whooooo
I think I said everything I wanted at this time. Now let’s focus on the work. Join the group if you want to help out as we go. Keep your fingers crossed — THANK YOU!
P.S.
Would you see me blogging progress or vlogging? Or both? (Don’t say both :)
