BAR
has never really paid its own way. The generous and blessedly
regular donations of a core of loyal readers more than fund the
site's modest hosting and bandwidth expenses, to be sure. But they
are a long way from compensating the double-digit hours Glen Ford puts in each
week spent researching, writing and editing, or his occasional travel,
the core of heavy lifting that makes Black Agenda Report possible.
Speaking engagements, the other means of income to support BAR, are
also down from last year.
"It's hard to see how ad revenues can replace reader donations any time soon"
Margaret
Kimberley is not compensated at all for the great column she has
produced every week for three or four years now. And apart from
speaking fees, I don't get paid either for the several days out of
each month spent writing, editing, researching and traveling for
Black Agenda Report. None of our contributing writers are
compensated either. All of us do what we do anyway because we believe it's vital
to keep a series of conversations going in our communities that are
not mediated by, not dominated by Big Media and government,
conversations that are not privatized, militarized or commercialized.
But
we have yet to discover a sustainable model. Something will have to
change. It's hard to see how ad revenues can replace our reader
donations any time soon. To stay in operation at our current level
we really need increased reader support via PayPal, online checks and
such, AND the ads. Needless to say, the ads on our site are
commercial messages, and so we cannot unreservedly endorse all of
them. We will be working with the ad broker to ensure that none of
the ads on our site are flagrantly offensive. We may transition to a
different structure too, either passing BAR to a not for profit
entity so that donors can take a tax exemption, or creating a
separate not for profit body to support our journalism which can
itself take tax exempt donations.
At
the moment, we aren't sure just which way we will go, but we DO know
that Black Agenda Report will NOT disappear. We promise to do what it takes
to keep it alive and well, to keep telling the stories that few
others will. Who else tells you, for instance, that broadcasters are
hijacking thousands of digital TV channels valued at more than $80
billion under the public's nose as part of the transition from analog
to digital TV? This is the kind of journalism you're supposed to get
from your daily papers, your TV and radio stations and 24 hour cable
news. We only do it because they won't.
But
again, this is not a sustainable situation. Journalism - and journalistic commentary and analysis - require the full-time work of skilled and highly
competent people who have to be compensated somehow. In the long run
it requires institutional protection too, or it becomes personally
risky for the journalists. This dilemma is bigger than Black Agenda
Report. The owners of Big Media have little or no use for journalism
either, and have been ruthlessly slashing the numbers of people
working in foreign bureaus and domestic newsrooms for the last twenty
years.
Right
now, we need reader donations to keep Black Agenda Report going more
than ever. We expect to perform a major overhaul of the site between
now and the end of the year. And we are taking suggestions on how to
preserve our character and continue to serve our readers. Send them
to publisher@blackagendareport.com.
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John Parker is Coordinator of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice in Los Angeles and a candidate for a congressional seat in California’s 37th District.
