Launching A New, Co-op Owned Online Publication "Mutual Interests"

Why does it sound like preaching to the choir? Perhaps I failed to articulate it, but my plan was to include totally nonpolitical content and content that appeals and interests across the political aisle.

I mention:

"Bringing forward other economic ideas that appeal also to both left and non-left leaning people:

• Anti-trust

• Free and open source software

• Land value tax

• Employee ownership 
"

If you look at anti-trust for example, it's been praised by folks like Tucker Carlson - the most popular TV show host in Fox News! Land value tax has a whole subculture of libertarian georgists or geolibetarians, that perhaps represent the majority of the most passionate advocates of land value tax. Employee ownership is in the Republican party platform and was praised by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, etc.

There would also be totally non-political content - such as sports news focusing on fan-owned sports clubs.

What is it that should be included if it was not preaching to the choir?

Maybe I was premature, or failed to consider more thoroughly your proposal, in which case I apologies. To reiterate, there is definitely a need, & a 'gap in the market' not addressed by what exists. If your proposal addresses it then that's 'good news'.

Just had a call with an economist who has worked as an accountant for decades for big businesses, he will be writing from a perspective of an "insider" critical of the current system. Also, a blogger by the name of blockchain socialist also wants to get involved.

I think it might be useful to define a one sentence Purpose for this new site... (forgive me if you have and I missed it).

"Helping revitalise a counter-economy of mutual self-help."

Be honest, is that gibberish to you?

Not to the initiated. Therein lies your problem. Most people just aren't listening.

i don't think its gibberish - but I wonder if it could be more specific and explicit - how will you help? what do you define as counter-economy? and mutual self-help? I would try to phrase it as: The purpose of XXXX org is to YYY by doing ZZZ. Then if you feel like making it really tangible I would add another sentence: We do this by (doing) AAA and BBB and CCC and aim to achieve DDD (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) goals by doing EEE within FFF (timeframe).

I hope you can see what I am getting at - I think you already know what you want to do and how - but communicating it precisely and concisely will make it easier for others to understand what you are doing - and make it easier for you to check (as you inevitably get dragged off mission by everything around you!) that you are still fulfilling your original purpose.

I also hope that by doing this you will be forced to think about your audience more (who they are, their demographics etc) - and if this plan is the best plan to achieve your wider objective. I.e. if the goal is an economy of mutual self help, what is the most effective way to achieve that?

Had a call with a fellow who is running a Facebook page called BritanForAll, with 185k followers. He has set up a company to run the page but would be happy to convert the company into a coop and merge it with Mutual Interests, gonna be talking with him on Friday for more details.

I think this has legs. I'd like to get thoughts on how such a publication/platform could work also as a content wholesaler/syndicator, working with local news providers. Simon's point highlights the idea of spheres of influence/engagement. If this project simply ends up serving content to readers who are already in the bubble then it fails. It has to reach beyond that, and from Leo's outline I think it will do that in so far as it can potentially reach across various bubbles and cross-pollinate. My own experience suggests, for example, people in the Labour Party have very little knowledge of the co-operative model, likewise with trade unionists, and often vice versa is also true.

For my own part, I think there is a potentially big opportunity at the local level. If my locality is anything to go by, the quality of local news has fallen away pretty sharply over the last few years, as the traditional model has failed to to respond effectively to the rise of social media and the loss of advertising revenue as that has moved online. What's left can hardly be said to serve the needs of the local community, as it is driven to ever more sensationalist headlines as clickbait to generate the ad revenue it needs to remain viable in the eyes of its corporate owners, who care only about profit margins. I think that there is scope to build a reader-owned and supported business model around a citizen journalism approach, delivering real useful news. In terms of promoting a pro-cooperative, commons-oriented, open source agenda, syndicating content from the central hub, and supporting the development of local hubs/access points adds a lot of value for me and builds a synergistic model. Very happy to talk more about this. Apologies if I digress.

Yes, we would love to cover especially success stories of things that local councils have done that could be replicated. We have few Labour councillors (including one from Preston!) who have said they can contribute articles :).

I like this idea - it reminds me of the https://indymedia.org/ model - which I see is now being rebuilt

Asked SEWA Twitter account whether some of their people would be interested in contributing. Got this response "Absolutely! We have been contributing to NCUI’s The Cooperator and would love to contribute further to the co-op movement!".