Welcome to our Spring Crowdfunding
Campaign of 2016!
YOU ARE WITNESS TO A GREAT AWAKENING
...A MEDIA RENAISSANCE
Did you know 6 corporations control 90% of all you read, see and hear?
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Russia Insider's runaway success represents a global awakening mirrored by the Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Phenomenon, and we're just getting started.
A VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT - An alternative news publication, driven by regular folks and citizen journalists from all over the world, leading the fight for honest journalism taming the trillion dollar, co-opted corporate media beast.
We're up to 15 paid staff now, still working out of our apt/office in Moscow. We've got over 300 volunteers from all over the world, publishing about 20 articles/day with blistering success.
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What's happened is a minor miracle
About 3,400 people from around the world, who were fed up with the appalling, war-mongering, anti-Russian bias of the US and European media, trusted us with a relatively modest sum in 2015, amounting to about $130,000.
With this money, we, and our small army of volunteers, created an information SLEDGEHAMMER which knocked a gaping hole into the Western media narrative. This might be a world record in cost vs. benefit.
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How did we do it?
Hardcore Grit, Sweat, and Tears - like you wouldn't believe - hundreds of people, who care very much about this, gave their time and passion and worked for free, or subsistence wages, to get the word out, and still do. That’s how.
We are reaching A LOT of people
EVERY MONTH about 1 million people visit our site, and our YouTube gets about 4 million views. That is extraordinary, considering that we started as a small blog in 2014 and have done everything on a shoestring budget.
Our material is widely picked up by other sites, meaning millions more read our articles every month.
Website: 50 million page views in 18 months
YouTube channel: 37 million views last year, with 70 million minutes of watch time, and 64k subscribers and counting. That means we're 2nd in the world for English language video content related to Russia. Yup.
Social media: 130,000+ followers. Our posts and tweets have a reached tens of millions.
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We double in size every 8 months or so
We’ve achieved critical mass and have broken out of the media blockade and are reaching a wider and wider audience.
We do not see an end to this rapid growth anytime soon. The Trump / Sanders phenomenon reflect a huge demographic waking up to the reality that they have been misled and poorly served by the corporate media.
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We are having a yuuuge impact
It is not just the numbers we are reaching, it is who is reading us. Top politicians, business leaders, and influential journalists are being influenced.. We are regularly cited across the media. Our contributors regularly appear on television. We are making a BIG difference.
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What we need money for
Ad revenue only covers about half of our overhead. The rest comes from donations crowdfunded from people like you. The more donations, the more we grow. It's that simple, this is real
reader-funded citizen-journalism. Our finances are public, you can see our latest audit
here.
Our $50,000 goal will go towards overhead for the Spring quarter of 2016
Should we surpass our goal we would LOVE TO:
- Hire more investigative journalists = more original content
- Create a podcast (under construction now)
- Develop video production (starting with a news & analysis show on YouTube)
If anyone is interested in helping with audio or video production, please write to our campaign manager David Curry at david@russia-insider.com
The truth is winning - we can't let up the pressure
Russia Insider is as good an example of democratic citizen activism having an enormous effect as you are likely to find. The tide is turning, and we are an important part of this historic process. This is no time to let up.
Plus we are under attack
This really is an information war and It’s coming now from all directions: hackers, trolls, smear campaigns, even moles. It's a sure sign that we’re on target and making an actual difference. Thus we need support now, more than ever.
The latest attack came in the form of an online defamation initiative propagating different conspiratorial theories, probably to hinder this very campaign. An independent audit has since been conducted, the results can be found here.
This isn't just about Russia
It's about our media failing us on many subjects. Our goal is to scrutinize, identify mistakes, check the facts, to keep them honest. We want to cover a lot more than Russia. This matters for everyone.
Check out our first two crowdfunding videos:
Our second (previous) crowdfunding video
Our first (initial) Crowdfunding video
Support us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
We study the corporate media
We are standing on the shoulders of people like Glenn Greenwald, Chris Hedges, Robert Parry, Ben Swann, and many others. Same issue, different angle.
We've got an incredible team
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Charles has spent his career in finance, specializing over the last 8 years in agriculture investments in Russia and Ukraine. He comes from Greenwich, CT, USA. He is based in Moscow, and also spends time in Berlin, Germany and Greenwich. (More info)
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Riley has written for The Huffington Post, CounterPunch, The Washington Times, True/Slant (the predecessor to Forbe's blogging platform) and ThinkProgress. He is a former editor of Wonkette.com. He is from Santa Monica, CA. He is 27. (More info)
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Dave and his wife Lizzy live in a quiet town outside Moscow. He is a US army veteran, and served in operation Iraqi Freedom. He comes from Los Angeles, CA, and grew up in upstate New York. (More info)
We are non-profit
Well, of course, because we are just a bunch of volunteers! We have partnered with a US 501 (c) (3) so if you are interested in making a tax-deductible contribution ($1k min), please contact our campaign manager, David Curry at david@russia-insider.com
It's not just about funding
It's about the number of people that support us. Even just a dollar makes a difference, because the more of us engage, the stronger the message we send. It gets reported in the media. It convinces others to donate. It snowballs.
Can't give a dollar?
SHARE the campaign with friends and family! Also support us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube! Our total tweets, Facebook likes, and YouTube subscribers get reported in the media. It shows the level of support out there. It really helps! It could trigger a contribution from someone else.
VOLUNTEER!
This is a volunteer movement, its in our DNA! We need:
Writers, journalists
Editors
Copy editors
Photo and image editors
Social media experts
Website design and function managers
Translators (Russian-English-German)
Business expertise: online ad revenue, other revenue sources, events
Video journalists, production
Video - help us make crowdfunding videos. We plan to do this on an ongoing basis on various platforms. Lots to do!
Audio journalists, production
Voice-over, dubbing
Manager of our Youtube channel
Volunteer coordinators
Interested? Just send a message to our head volunteer coordinator, David at david@russia-insider.com. Visit our site for more detailed info.
Keep an eye on our fund-raising, if we raise enough money, these will turn into paid positions.
LET'S TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM!
For more information, The link below is a detailed report of the story of Russia Insider by freelance journalist Frank Gashumba. *It may also be used as a press release or an article without attribution.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Edmund Burke
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