Submitted by Tom Murphy on Wed, 06/16/2010 – 1:06pm
Newswire21.org, a new nonprofit startup that aims to reinvent the wire service from the ground up, is looking for writers and editors in the DC area to help start our Washington bureau. If you’ve ever wanted to help start a cool, new news service, this is your chance. Those who volunteer to help get N21 started will earn preference in hiring when we receive funds to offer jobs.
We’re looking for experienced journalists who recognize the media world is changing and want to swim with the tide instead of against it. Newswire21’s mission is to blend the passion of community-based citizen reporting with the best practices of traditional journalism, creating a complete local, national and world report that can be offered to web sites at minimal cost. Think of it as a wikipedia of news that is run as a cooperative led by experienced journalists. Your participation could be full-time or as little as one day a week.
We’re currently seeking seed grants that would allow us to offer salaries, and we hope to be financing our own growth after just two years. Newswire21 was a finalist for the Knight News Challenge competition, but has not yet received funding. Even so, we’ve already conducted a promising pilot project in the San Francisco Bay Area in collaboration with the San Francisco State Journalism Department, the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism, the SF Neighborhood Empowerment Network, Spot.Us and others.
Based on that success, we plan to expand nationally by fall, blending a professional news report — world, national and local — tailored to the 21st century needs of new media (hence our name – Newswire21). Existing wire services employ a 19th century business model designed to help newspapers reduce staffing costs. That model makes little sense today and leaves thousands of web sites with few affordable options to bring world and national news to their readers.
Founder/EIC Tom Murphy will be in DC to interview participants on Jun 21-22. Murphy has more than 30 years experience at news companies like The AP, Bloomberg, RedHerring.com and MarketWatch, where he was the founding managing editor. If you’d like to set up a meeting, or just want more info, please contact Murphy atInfo@Newswire21.org.