Help Scoop Build A New News Company For The People Of NZ

Wednesday, 17 June 2015, 2:18 pm
Article: Scoop Operation Chrysalis

You are invited to help change the course of #FutureOfNews in NZ

At a time when the institution of the Fourth Estate and public broadcasting are both under dire threat, Scoop has developed a funding model that could save the news industry. By charging a license fee for commercial use of news content, Scoop can maintain free public free access to its news - and help inform NZ’s democracy.

NZ’s much loved, and widely used independent online news service Scoop has discovered a solution to funding the provision of public good news services in NZ. Scoop’s solution isn't primarily driven by the interests of advertisers or massive media corporations.

The solution - which we are calling an “Ethical Paywall” (public creative commons + commercial use licenses) - eliminates the need for locking away news content from the public via Paywalls. If it can gain widespread acceptance, Scoop’s interpretation of copyright for the way news is paid for could save the news industry.

On Friday 12th June Scoop published “ Operation Chrysalis Update #6: How Scoop's “Ethical Paywall” Model Has Changed Everything ” the editorial from Scoop founder Alastair Thompson includes the following:

In the last two months, Scoop.co.nz has won an important victory for new media, one which it is now confident can secure the future of its much loved, and much used, New Zealand news source.
As of this month, a broad range of professional organisations, including constitutional institutions, government agencies & departments, NGOs, Unions, CRIs, law firms, PR agencies, accountancy firms, media organisations, libraries and businesses - all of which make regular use of Scoop in their daily work and for professional research - have joined Scoop’s new “Ethical Paywall” copyright licensing scheme. Some have actively embraced the idea.
In doing so these organisations have agreed that they should be paying a licence to use Scoop in a professional context and comply with Scoop’s published copyright Terms of Use.
(See…. How Scoop's “Ethical Paywall” Model Has Changed Everything)

As soon as Scoop has its first member you will notice that this PledgeMe “Crowd” campaign will be already funded. This is deliberate. We want to send a clear signal that what we are really doing here is crowd-selling. Our intention is to focus attention on what we are doing via the lens of PledgeMe - thereby giving our new “Ethical Paywall” the best possible start we can.

Because your contribution is a sale not a donation all contributions are purchases, and are therefore inclusive of GST. If you want an invoice email accounts@scoop.co.nz.

However your because this crowd-selling campaign is being conducted via PledgeMe we will not receive your funds (and you will not have to pay) till after the offer closes on July 1st.

Why we are Crowd-Selling

Scoop has launched it’s “16 Days Of Scoop” crowd-selling campaign to support its mission to provide access to NZ independent news and journalism as a public right, and in particular support takeup of the Scoop ethical paywall model.

How much do we want & what we will do with the money

If we can sell $100,000 of memberships and licenses over the 16 days of Scoop then we will have enough to bring together a multidisciplinary team to mount a campaign which - fate willing - can alter the course of the #FutureOfNews in NZ.

1) Become A Founding Member of The New Scoop

Scoop is crowd-selling:

Individual Annual Memberships - in Basic $16 (+ Certified $50), Notable $75, Fashionista $95 and Full Monty $150 configurations (which come with notebooks and/or t-shirts) and the right to participate as a member in The New Scoop organisation.

&

Corporate Membership ($5k and $10k) - for institutions, businesses or individuals who wish to support the objectives of the Operation Chrysalis project, and want to be associated with it. These come with credit to spend on Scoop services (Advertising, Infopages, Newsagent) up to 70% of value of the contribution.

(Ask further questions about membership in the Scoop Loomio Online Community or email Chrysalis@Scoop.co.nz . Answers will be compiled into an FAQ.)

2) Accredit Your Personal, Business Or Organisation For Commercial Use Of Scoop

Buy A New “Founders” Scoop Commercial Use Licenses for 30% Off

As selling licenses is the primary objective of this campaign the pricing offered here until June 30th is significantly better than you will achieve by purchasing directly from Scoop.co.nz.

Find out more about Scoop's Commercial Licensing visit the Scoop website Services pages by clicking here.

To decide which tier license your organisation needs to purchase to cover the ethical use of Scoop all you need to know is the number of employees you have. If you have any questions about this contact Steven Wood (Scoop Business Dev. Manager) or Alastair Thompson (Scoop Publisher) via licensing@scoop.co.nz.

USE OF FUNDS:

The funding raised from this crowd selling campaign will be used to support Scoop in its mission to provide access to NZ independent news and journalism as a public right and support takeup of the Scoop ethical copyright licensing model.

ENDORSEMENTS (Contribute An Endorsement):

1. New Zealand Law Librarians’ Association
President of the New Zealand Law Librarians’ Association Anne Paton was one of those who enthusiastically responded to Scoop’s editorial “Why Scoop.co.nz Can No Longer Be Free”.
“Law Librarians are often the conscience within organisations about rights to usage of content,” she says. Paton is the librarian for DLA Piper, one of four major NZ Law Firms which have signed licenses this year.

2. ComVoices

(ComVoices is a peak body joining together coordinating organisations in the Community and Voluntary Sector.)

ComVoices chair Helga Wientjs writes:

“Things are changing at Scoop. It is transforming itself into a not -for-profit social enterprise and has started to charge for its services. We understand why Scoop has had to change and to explore new funding options.

Scoop will remain free to the public, but where its content is of professional use to businesses and institutions, they will need to pay to cover the running costs through a licensing system based on the number of people in an organisation. If the costs are spread in this way over a number of large and medium organisations, then the cost burden will be small.

For ComVoices, Community Scoop is an important piece of public infrastructure that we want to see preserved.

Scoop’s unique sector value

• It is a valuable media outlet and the only media of its kind to offer a service to the community and voluntary sector
• It is a unique communications vehicle publishing information that is of value to the sector
• It emails all of our press releases directly to MPs
• Provides daily updates and other targeted services
• Has infrastructure that we cannot hope to replicate.

In summary, it provides the community and voluntary sector with a platform to enhance our profile, enables us to engage with one another and to access an audience of 450,000 monthly unique users.

We recommend that as a member of ComVoices if you use Scoop’s information professionally that you investigate and consider their licensing proposal.

Scoop provides a unique networking function within civil society. Supporting it morally and where possible, financially, is in our collective interest.”

(Additional endorsements will be added here as they are received or offered. listed here If you are willing to endorse Scoop or write a blog post about this campaign please email us with the details at chrysalis@scoop.co.nz )

Last Wednesday was Scoop.co.nz's "Sweet 16th" birthday.

For its shareholders (read parents) Scoop has always seemed like a bit of a precocious child. Demanding, resource intensive, and also very life enriching and engaging, and with boundless potential.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and now that Scoop is on the edge of adulthood, Scoop is definitely in need of the support of a village to thrive. This crowd-selling campaign is about is bringing Scoop’s village (in which we hope it will thrive) together.

Everybody who has an interest in things related to news is invited to join and become a “Member of Scoop”. “Members” will get to participate in a Member’s forum in the lead up to a planned emergence of A New Scoop in August this year - and after establishment will become founding members of the Scoop Village.

16 Days Of Scoop Story-Telling And Product Selling

Starting today to mark the arrival of Scoop’s early-adulthood, for the next 16 Days Scoop is going to seek to present itself to society, like a debutante. We intend to showcase Scoop to you - its crowd ( readership, contributors, clients and friends) . We intend to demonstrate to you what Scoop is doing and can do, and give you an idea of where Scoop can go if given some encouragement.

We will try to tell you the story of Scoop, what we can do for you* and what we can do for New Zealand. And why that matters. We have an exciting tale to tell. So please bear with us and ask questions freely..

By 1 July we hope those who are interested will understand the scope of this collective project - one which belongs to everyone- and one which we hope will benefit all.

*(and especially your businesses, NGOs, crown entities, libraries, law firms and democratic institutions - i.e. professional news users)

How Scoop's Ethical Copyright Licence Model Changes Everything

Since the formal launch of Scoop's Invisible Paywall on 29 April, it has been a little disorienting at Scoop. Assisted by its timing - amid a growing crisis in the news industry - the launch of Scoop’s ethical copyright licensing model has gone exceedingly well.

In just a few weeks we have acquired numerous high quality, credible & highly motivated clients and supporters.

The day after our launch we immediately started selling our new “Invisible Paywall” licenses. Businesses and agencies - covering the gamut of Scoop's potential client base - not only understood the idea - some of them loved it.

But most importantly they have started buying licenses.

Scoop has law firms with licenses. Scoop has Government Departments with licenses. We have libraries with licenses. We have NGOs with licenses and constitutional institutions with licenses.

Six weeks on our idea to assert a moral right under existing Copyright law to be paid for our work in curating and publishing New Zealand’s news has legs.

If Scoop can convince just a fraction of the 1000s of businesses and organisations which use Scoop’s news and database as part of their professional practice to contribute just a little each towards the costs of providing our service, then Scoop will have discovered a sustainable "new" business model for news monetisation.

And there is a cherry on the top.

Because we are also turning Scoop’s NZ publishing business into a not-for-profit, held for the benefit of all NZers, if Scoop’s succeeds in this enterprise then the surpluses it earns will be reinvested in efforts to produce and promote sustainable, ethical, stable and responsible public interest journalism, for the benefit of everyone.

(Caption: On April 24th a petition with nearly 104,000 signatures (collected by @ScoopNZ and @ActionStation ) from Kiwis concerned about the loss of the Campbell Live current affairs programme was marched to TV3's headquarters and delivered to John Campbell.)

Help Scoop pioneer a human centered business model for the future of news.

This crowd-selling campaign is being launched as Scoop’s path forward comes into focus. In many ways Scoop is more a network than a publishing company. A network of communicators which efficiently enables the business of news to be conducted.

The owners of Scoop want to preserve this and so decided at the end of last year to turn Scoop into a new kind of news organisation. Reflecting the fact the new Journalism is looking less and less like a business activity, and more and more like a collective creative community activity, Scoop’s new ownership structure (probably charitable) will hold Scoop for the benefit of the people of NZ.

Scoop is also a business. And on the business side Scoop like all businesses in the news industry in NZ has recently had some very dark days indeed. Globally the news industry is facing possibly the greatest crisis it has ever experienced.

The “Rivers of Gold” from advertising that have supported journalism for the past three centuries have dried up and like the recorded music industry the news industry is facing an existential crisis. But when the going gets tough….

So we came up with a plan:
• Launch a public conversation on The State of NZ News Media;
• Crowdfund to facilitate turning Scoop into a not-for-profit (and to gauge interest in support for the idea);
• Find new entrepreneurs to take over the driving wheel for the next 16 years;
• Find partners and collaborators to work with the skills we need;

In short to bring together the village we now need to raise one of the oldest news businesses of the interwebs, the now 16-year-old "child" news business, into a mature “new news” business fit for adult life in the 21st Century.

And all this has been achieved. Some parts more than others. But the idea has been embraced by a wide cross-section of stakeholders, friends and allies.

On February 13th Scoop 2015 became an Enspiral.com venture

Accelerating the processes of change at Scoop has been the fact that Scoop found a very dynamic and exciting existing village - Wellington's amazing Enspiral Network - to move into.

(Caption: In mid-may Scoop Editor Alastair Thompson attended his second "Enspiral Retreat" with a group of members of the Enspiral.com network.)

Scoop's Operation Chrysalis was an ambitious plan but we had an ace up our sleeve. As Scoop turned 15 last year we reached out to Enspiral.

In July we had our first meeting to brainstorm future paths. In October we adopted Loomio for internal collaboration and started planning internally collaboratively. In December Scoop's Alastair Thompson and Wendy Cooper attended an Enspiral Retreat, and in February following a two week period of consultation Scoop formally became an Enspiral Venture.

That said our Enspiralisation is definitely only just beginning. A complete cultural technology change out is on the agenda. One which will be worked out collaboratively by the new team who will take over the role of managing The New Scoop with a target date of commencement in August.

Scoop's Target Date for Not-For-Profit Incorporation Status Now August 2015

As many of you will be aware this is Scoop Independent News' 2nd Crowd-Funding campaign for 2015. Our first one raised $36,874 towards facilitating he gift of Scoop.co.nz from its current owners to a new structure.

This was Scoop’s first ever crowd-funding campaign (which we were delighted succeeded) - a traditional form donation based campaign - and it funded the following outcomes (See update progress notes in brackets follow each stated objective of this campaign):

• Consult with the parties who will become guardians of Scoop in public ownership; (UPDATE 16 June 2015: Scoop has begun discussions with several stakeholder groups and potential partners in The New Scoop. In particular we have: become an Enspiral Venture and partnered with the Enspiral Network on several collaborative projects (including the OS//OS conference, The re-releases of the HotAir Documentary, The launch of Code For Good/Scoop Labs ); begun discussions with an educational institution; presented to and been endorsed by ComVoices; initiated discussions with Library networks and much more.)


• Recruit, induct and establish a new leadership team of social entrepreneurs who will ultimately take on responsibility for piloting THE NEW SCOOP into the next decade; (UPDATE 16 June 2015: Scoop has made significant progress towards identifying some new people who are interested in taking Scoop forward. We are still looking for new people however and anyone with an interest should email Chrysalis@scoop.co.nz with their details.)


• Support the refocusing of Scoop's business activities towards providing value added services to our communications clients. (UPDATE 16 June 2015: This has been our primary focus since we completed the our crowd-funding round. Designing the product and commencing marketing and “thought leadership” work around it. This campaign is a testament to that work’s success and Scoop is enormously grateful to the numerous people whose wisdom and work has assisted in this effort.)

Rewards Fullfillment

As a result of the first crowd funding campaign Scoop has distributed 80 notebooks and 90 t-shirts to donors. We have sent thank you certificates to all 300+ donors, published a Thankyou page for our supporters and delivered several advertising campaigns as rewards including:

• one to advertise the public release of Alister Barry’s award winning Climate Change politics documentary Hot Air; and


• one to support the campaign to get Wellington City to incorporate its commitment to the Living Wage into its Long Term Plan.

Operation Chrysalis / Scoop’s Ethical Paywall - The Story So Far

• In 2012 Scoop adopted a set of terms of conditions of use that:
  a. Secure the provision of free “personal use” public access to Scoop Content indefinitely (i.e. reading the website, accessing the database, quoting from, linking to etc.)
  b. Define “Commercial Use” (See Terms of Use 3.3) and require commercial users to obtain a license to use Scoop.


• In June 2014 Scoop advised the NZ Government’s “Heads of Profession” communications advisers group of its new licensing model in a leaflet called “Where News Begins”.


• On December 19th 2014 Scoop Announced “Operation Chrysalis”, a project to transform Scoop into a not-for-profit, seek relationships with new collaborators, innovation partners and entrepreneurs.


• On January 16th 2015 Scoop launched a State of NZ News Media public conversation with a series of articles and a Loomio public discussion forum.


• On February 13th Scoop was formally admitted as an “Enspiral Venture”, part of the Enspiral.com Network of socially conscious businesses (including Loomio, Craftworks, Life Hack, Chackle, Rabid, Lean Labs, Noshi, Enspiral Services and Dev Academy.) Scoop’s relationship with the Enspiral Dev Academy recently resulted in the launch of Scoop Labs, a project that we hope will become a open source future of news technology incubator.


• On February 18th Scoop launched a PledgeMe crowdfunding campaign to facilitate its transformation into a not-for-profit. The Campaign closed at the end of March having raised $36,874 from 321 Pledgers.


• On 10 April as part of the #SaveCampbellLive social media campaign which it ran with ActionStation Scoop launched a “Campaign for Advertiser Responsibility”on the back of a petition which has so far received nearly 10,000 signatures.


• On April 29th Scoop published an editorial explaining “Why Scoop Can No Longer Be Free” and began advising its readers via advertising on the site that it is copyright and that ”You May Need A Commercial License” to use Scoop.

Intended Timetable For Next Steps In Operation Chrysalis

Now- 30 August - Prove the sustainability of new business model through sales.
Now- 30 August - Continue discussions with partners/stakeholders in The New Scoop’s eco-system including defining the roles of Guardians.
Now- Mid August - Consult on and finalise the new legal structure of Scoop as a not-for-profit, constitution including roles of Members and Guardians.
Now- Mid August - Commence building a new Enspiralised management team for Scoop - deepening the links that Scoop has within Enspiral and the relationships of Enspiral Network companies with Scoop.
Target Date by 30th August - Execute Scoop’s formal restructuring into a not-for-profit
September to December - The New Scoop butterfly emerges.

ENDS

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