{"id":2717,"date":"2007-08-10T16:13:29","date_gmt":"2007-08-10T16:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/dc\/jtm-dc-wally-bowen\/"},"modified":"2007-08-10T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2007-08-10T16:13:29","slug":"jtm-dc-wally-bowen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/dc\/jtm-dc-wally-bowen\/","title":{"rendered":"Jtm-dc-Wally Bowen"},"content":{"rendered":"

img src=”https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Jtm-dc-wally-bowen.jpg” alt=” Wally Bowen” \/>
\nWally Bowen, Executive Director
\nMountain Area Information Network (MAIN)
\nhttp:\/\/www.main.nc.us
\nWPVM-LP 103.5 FM
\nhttp:\/\/www.wpvm.org
\nIndyLink Access & Webhosting
\nhttp:\/\/www.indylink.org
\n828.255.0182 ext. 109
\nGIRAFFE PROSPECT PROFILE<\/a><\/p>\n

Wally Bowen describes the business model of Mountain Area Information Network.<\/b>
\n
\nThe nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) in Asheville, N.C.
\ntakes a radically different approach to the financial sustainability of
\ncitizen journalism. We believe the biggest challenge facing CJ projects
\nis not the production of content, but the aggregation of audience and the
\ncreation of reliable revenue streams.<\/p>\n

MAIN’s model has successfully met both of these challenges since its
\nfounding in 1996. We are a nonprofit Internet service provider (ISP)
\noperating on a simple principle: give citizens the option of spending
\ntheir Internet dollars to support local, independent media. MAIN’s primary
\nrevenue streams over the last decade have been dial-up Internet access,
\nwebhosting, and, more recently, high-speed Internet access via wireless
\nnetworking. Other revenue streams include public radio-style on-air
\nfundraising via our low-power FM radio station and underwriting from local
\nbusinesses.<\/p>\n

We currently have 380 broadband wireless subscribers; we estimate that we
\nneed 1,000 wireless subs to return to financial sustainability.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest challenges facing any kind of independent
\nmedia — especially in the age of media consolidation — is finding an
\naudience, especially a local audience. Given the global nature of online
\nexperience, the challenge of finding a local audience is often
\noverlooked. Yet, the local audience is arguably paramount. After all,
\npublic policy — whether federal, state or local — ultimately reaches
\nand affects citizens where they live.<\/p>\n

MAIN has addressed the challenge of audience-aggregation by creating
\na synergistic,"cross-platform" infrastructure including the Web, LPFM
\nradio, and public access TV. These venues have enabled us to create and
\npromote a
\nregional news and information Web portal (http:\/\/www.main.nc.us) that now
\nattracts more than 16,000 unique visitors per day, second only to the
\nGannett-owned Asheville Citizen-Times in our mountain region.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, our four-year old LPFM station, WPVM-103.5 FM, has attracted
\nmore than 80 volunteers producing 36 local programs each week. And we are
\nnow delivering content via Asheville’s new public access TV station, URTV,
\nwhich MAIN helped to create. Audio and video content we create for WPVM
\nand URTV is streamed via our Web portal to reach audiences outside the
\nbroadcast and cable range.<\/p>\n

Operating as a nonprofit gives the added advantage of presenting content
\nin a non-commercial context, thereby overcoming one of the greatest
\nshortcomings of advertising-supported journalism: fragmented,
\ndecontextualized coverage. We believe this is one of the reasons for the
\npopularity of our regional news portal.<\/p>\n

Today’s fragmented, foreshortened journalism would be unthinkable to the
\nframers of the First Amendment. Our nonprofit status and sustainable ISP
\nbusiness model frees us from the constraints of advertising-supported
\njournalism.<\/p>\n

With the rapid growth of broadband wireless, any independent media
\norganization could become an ISP and use locally-generated Internet
\ndollars to sustain a local CJ project.<\/p>\n

Ideal organizations would be existing PEG access and community radio
\n\/community technology centers, as these organizations already attract
\ntech-savvy volunteers. Operating a local ISP is not rocket-science.
\nTech-savvy students already operate ISP co-ops using affordable wireless
\ntechnologies such as Meraki.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

img src=”https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Jtm-dc-wally-bowen.jpg” alt=” Wally Bowen” \/> Wally Bowen, Executive Director Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) http:\/\/www.main.nc.us WPVM-LP 103.5 FM http:\/\/www.wpvm.org IndyLink Access & Webhosting http:\/\/www.indylink.org 828.255.0182 ext. 109 GIRAFFE PROSPECT PROFILE Wally Bowen describes the business model of Mountain Area Information Network. The nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network (MAIN) in Asheville, N.C. takes a radically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2717","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/dc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}