Building a Better Sustainable Local Journalist
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The livestreaming encoder during a long meeting
Your contribution to this short crowd-funding campaign with help to build sustainable independent local public service journalism as provided by Joey Coleman:
- Purchase of new website template from themeforest that will enable Joey to better publish his comprehensive analysis and coverage of City Council meetings, better integrate his livestreams into his website;
- Funding a professional newsletter template that integrates times in a visually pleasure format to better inform you of the day's planned livestreams and keep you informed about all City Hall news;
- New graphics for replay video;
- Cover the costs of printing materials for distribution to neighbour associations and people at events to increase the reach of coverage of City Hall meetings this fall as Joey meets with as many neighbourhood associations as possible to prepare to assist with livestreaming of election debates in communities during the 2014 municipal election;
- New batteries for the livestream equipment. After a couple thousand hours of livestreaming, some batteries need replacement;
- Subscription to Adobe Cloud to enable quicker and better editing of videos following meetings for posting to YouTube to ensure more people are informed of what is occuring at City Hall, School Board, and Police Services Board;
- Cover costs of hosting, data, transportation, and misc costs as Joey works to promote his service to build new supports to fund on a monthly contribution basis when we launch this new option for supporting local journalism in Hamilton that will make Joey's journalism sustainable to ensure we all benefit from comprehensive, informed, and fair coverage of the 2014 municipal election.
We're looking to raise $525 to make this all possible as we up the momentum this fall to ensure we have full coverage in 2014.
After successfully crowdfunding three times, we'll enjoy the benefits of the Indiegogo Partners project during future campaigns.
In a couple of weeks, we'll be launching monthly supporter contributions with the initial goal of reaching 100 supporters at an average of $25 per month to support great local journalism and as the number of supporters expands, so will the number of reporters supported.
What is next?
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The new studio with microphones, camera, soundboard, and lighting.
From the March round of crowdfunding, we were able to invest in more audio equipment, a soundboard, a entry-level video editing computer, and furniture that will allow for a sitdown interview format with Hamilton's elected officials, community leaders, and anyone else with an insightful or interesting perspective on our civic life.
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Starting September 13, we will have regular 8:30am live interactive interviews to gain more insight into the topics on the agenda that day, the wider issues facing Council, and what issues we should be looking forward to.
(September 13 is the start of the 2014 budget process and we will have more comprehensive indepth coverage of how the City spends our money)
- We'll experiment with Google Hangouts to get more neighbourhood association viewpoints into our coverage of neighbourhood and hyperlocal issues;
- The rebuilt website and customized newsletter will make news coverage easier to follow.
Our Hamilton news service is unique, no other community has this kind of public service news outlet. It is great because we have a wealth of unedited direct information; the challenge is building the infrastructure to support and consume that information and this is why we are looking at new templates to improve the service.
With these improvements, less time will be spent updating the website and creating the newsletter; with the freed time we will get more articles and better edited replays to ensure we are all better informed.
Next Steps
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The soundboard in action during a Council meeting
The challenge for local journalism is sustainability and the problem is paying for journalist. The solution is not a paywall. The solution is creating high-quality journalism that people value and are willing to voluntarily support.
We're doing that in Hamilton right now.
With the redesigned webpage, we will give people the option of supporting high-quality local journalism on an on-going monthly basis.
With monthly contributions, we'll be able to expand the news service by hiring Hamiltonians to cover our community as the number of supporters grows.
Preparation for the 2014 election including building a custom video broadcaster server to enable on-air graphics, picture-in-picture (see presentations and speakers), and real-time editing to see interviews and debatings uploaded to YouTube without editing lag.
As part of 2014 election coverage:
- All candidates will have the opportunity for a live interview when they register as a candidate at City Hall;
- We will partner with neighbourhood associations to assist with livestreaming debates in all wards;
- We'll organize online interactive livestreamed debates for all races in the City;
and more
Other Ways You Can Help
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Portable USB charger powering a Pocket Hotspot
Join in the coverage, add your feedback, and share when you read an informative article or see a meeting that matters to you, your friends and your neighbours.
Most importantly - be awesome to others in everything you do!
