The *PS Charter of Community Responsibility captures our aspirations and vision of a fairer, better-informed and more engaged society
The *PS Charter of Editorial Independence promises that *PS Media will maintain the highest standards of accuracy, balance, fairness and integrity in its reporting, to earn the trust of the communities it serves. It begins by noting that *PS Media will “inform our communities with fact-based journalism.”
Executive Summary
Collaborative, community-owned local news startup *PS Media was founded in direct response to the collapse in the business model for local news.
*PS Media sought to develop a bold, original and deployable solution to the global problem of a decline in local news. We wanted to develop a local solution with global potential.
We asked backers to invest in a platform designed to strengthen civic engagement, give communities agency and power and foster active citizenship and volunteering.
*PS Media was designed as a profit-for-purpose media startup providing quality, serious professional local journalism, via digital community infrastructure that would be co-owned by the people it served.
We asked financial supporters to back a collaborative local news startup co-creating the news with the communities it served.
Ultimately, we planned to establish a business model based on a community co-ownership structure, in which local supporters would pay $125 a year for each of four years, making a total of $500, in return for co-ownership. Our modelling showed we would need 1000 such supporters to pay for a journalist in an area.
We also planned future revenue streams to be generated from monetising ethically and transparently collected data on local communities, and to create alliances with ethically aligned Corporate supporters. Local business advertising was also considered..
The pandemic was a difficult time in which to raise funds and develop our business model.
We had a fundraising target of $1.5 million. Over two seed funding rounds in 2021 and 2022, we raised $800,000 from outside sources, plus $239,000 initial investment from the founders, making a total of $1,039,000. We also received substantial pro bono support. The shortage of funds, however, affected all aspects of our operations.
Values are the core of Paradigm Shift Media Pty Ltd’s value proposition to its financial supporters and the communities it seeks to serve. The co-founders developed two key documents.
Post-Pilots Report, November 2023 *PS Media 3
These documents included as appendices A and B to this report.
We developed a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – an early version of a publishing platform.
Reporters and editors were hired. In June 2022 we held a “bootcamp” for our new journalism recruits. This was based around the *PS Reporters Handbook, developed by *PS Media co-founder Dr Margaret Simons.
We had some frustrating technology related teething problems, as is common for startups. This caused a delay, but *PS Media came to life and started publishing in August 2022.
Due to the shortfall in funding, our initial cohort of staff were on short-term, three-month contracts. As a result, we experienced an early talent drain. The staff turnover cost us momentum and community connection.
In retrospect, we should have done more consultation with the communities for our pilots before we began to publish journalism. Our reporters were given a dedicated fortnight to connect with the community before they started reporting, and we had a presence at local events as well, but nevertheless journalism began being produced before the communities being served had been fully engaged with or consulted. This, too, was partly because of the limited runway provided by our funding.
The lack of community consultation meant that *PS Media was less of a “paradigm shift” in media connecting with the community than we would have wished. However, we reported on local issues with a depth and quality that was not replicated in the mainstream. We judge our journalism a success.
Our audience numbers over the pilot period were not large – 28,000 users over our three locations, so we only reached 4% of the total addressable market. However, we had considerable impact on powerful institutions in our areas of operation, and on the subjects of our stories.
Our Logan City pilot ended in September 2022. A second influx of funds from Port Phillip locals and major funders allowed *PS Media to continue its journalism in Port Phillip until June 2023, and to experiment with various engagement and marketing strategies to collaborate with the community.
This report is designed to explain what we managed to deliver thanks to the generous support of our funders. We also report on our shortcomings, and the lessons learned.
We end with a question: should *PS Media continue, and if so how? The news landscape has not improved. It has got worse.
Full post pilot report can be found here
