An alternative weekly paper in Akron Ohio has launched a bid to become a reader-owned co-operative.
The Devil Strip, which covers the city’s culture, music and arts scene, has launched its fundraising campaign with NewsMatch — a national matching-gift campaign for newsrooms. It set itself an initial target of US $20,000 but passed this within a week of its 1 November launch.
By law, the offer is only open to Ohio residents. Readers who contribute will become shareholders, giving them a say in the strategic future of the publication.
The Devil Strip team said: “We believe that community news is best equipped to serve readers when it is owned by the community. When all of you have a vested interest – literally – in The Devil Strip, we believe our journalism will be closer and more vital to the community than ever.”
Readers can become shareholders for as little as US$1 per month. Once they have invested $330, their share is fully vested and they are a shareholder for life. Membership tiers are available for readers who want to donate more.
Shareholders will meet annually to vote on new board members, broad budget and programming questions and to select editorial projects for our journalists to prioritise.
The move comes after more 20 years of financial pressure on news media around the world, with the the loss of classified and other advertising income to the internet. Figures suggest US newsrooms have lost a quarter of their jobs since 2008
The crisis has led other titles around the world to attempt the co-op route to survival. In Canada, a several Francophone city papers owned by Groupe Capitales Médias are facing closure and are running a co-op fundraising bid.
Related: Canadian newspaper group launches co-op bid to save titles
At the end of last year, the Je coopère pour mon journal (I co-operate for my newspaper) campaign received a boost when Quebec’s provincial government put its support behind the model.
