There is a major new news and media undertaking afoot. The new project, which you may already have seen endorsed by Michael Albert, Noam Chomsky, Vandana Shiva, Howard Zinn, David Cromwell and others, is called The NewStandard. It is an ambitious, innovative website, independently publishing current hard news from the US and around the world, all professionally and progressively written.

On January 2nd, we released The NewStandard and are currently producing content at a low, affordable level. We have hopes of expanding very soon. We've been online only since January 2, but already we are inundated with email telling us we're beginning to fill the gaping hole in US news media.

Our eventual goal is to challenge the that same news media outright, by covering more relevant stories, from anti-elitist standpoints, in ways that highlight the contrasts between critical journalism and the corporate sludge that now pervades.

The NewStandard is part of a suite of projects underway by PeoplesNetWorks, a nonprofit collective co-founded by ZNet contributors Brian Dominick and Jessica Azulay. PeoplesNetWorks has brought on several others as associate editors of The NewStandard, including some folks you are probably familiar with, Z writers Justin
Podur, Cynthia Peters, C.P. Pandya and Chris Shumway.

Nearly every part of our endeavor has gone exceedingly well:

* we have found a third collective member, Simone Baribeau, who previously worked with Mark Weisbrot at the Center for Economic Policy Research, and is a superb investigator with invaluable business sense.

* we have reviewed applications of more than 4,000 journalists the world over, selecting the top 50 to regularly provide us with reliable coverage of current events, and still growing almost daily.

* a local progressive business (Syracuse Cultural Workers) has donated unused office space

* we have custom-built a robust, highly-interactive website.

* we have garnered the attention and hopes of future subscribers in every part of the world.

Unfortunately, however, we have had decidedly poor luck in one category, and that is fundraising. We excel at activism and organizing, writing and editing, but we have been laughably unsuccessful in our attempts to raise the money necessary to propel The NewStandard to sustainability.

It is our hope that you will consider supporting The New Standard, which we believe is unique among alternative media outlets. Since we produce hard news, we differ from traditional leftist sites that contain primarily, if not exclusively, commentary and analysis. While we too publish cartoons, satire, editorials, guest opinions and analytical pieces, we focus on real news reporting which encourages our readers draw their own conclusions.

We expect our focus on hard news to reach a far broader audience, while providing progressives and activists with much-needed resources and information.

Additionally, unlike nearly every alternative media website, we pay all of our content contributors for all of their work. Thus, support for The NewStandard in turn supports independent journalists.

But we are almost out of money. Without more support right away, we will have to put The NewStandard on the backburner. We have worked an average of 70-80 hours a week since last June on and in support of TNS, but our personal bank accounts have all but run dry, and we are each faced with the possibility of taking on even more
work outside of PNW in order to pay the bills. This would effectively halt publication of The NewStandard indefinitely.

Like ZNet, we have no foundation support and accept no advertising. We do have a highly sustainable "business model" (explained on our site, and in a written report upon request). All we need to reach self-sufficiency is some help getting started. Who better to ask for that help than the people who believe our work, which now generates enough funds to subsidize decent salaries, a print magazine and a media
institute? We desperately need that kind of support.

Please visit our newly-released website for a taste of what we are capable of producing, and please consider donating generously to this worthy new project. We believe The NewStandard's potential will be obvious the moment you click this link:

newstandardnews.net

Thanks for your attention, and for all your support -- past, present and future.

Sincerely,
The NewStandard