An Open Discussion

Following is a letter from Dr. Les Sachs, a contributing editor of MWC News to me, which I find very interesting with many valid concerns and questions. Some of these questions also have occupied my mind for some time and I too am in search for the answers.

Based on the level of my involvement in MWC, it is a natural assumption that I would be the one who have the answers to the questions regarding MWC News. I said natural but this is not entirely accurate. My role in MWC is to coordinate the efforts of members, writers and its editors. In my view assigning the success and failure of this medium to a single person, not only is an incorrect premise but also a dangerous one. It is beyond anyone’s ability and strength to carry this major task single-handedly.

Hence, let us all take a part in this and start by participation in this discussion.

Here are some questions brought forward by Dr. Sachs, which needs to be answered.

Shahram Vahdany

Dear Shahram,

You are engaged in a very difficult - but very worthy and needed - project, with MWC News.

There is much that is distinctive and successful about MWC News, and also much that is an ongoing challenge.

These challenges are also faced by anyone trying to create an alternative news portal, in the middle of this age of dominance by the global media corporations. Though the internet is an opportunity for alternate sources, it has also magnified the power of the global media giants, too. - But you know all of this.

There is much to praise in MWC News - like aspects of the layout with the photos, and the truly superb e-mail news briefs, which with their photos are in the top-class of e-mailed news letters in the world.

The new artistic lettering of the top logo words 'Media with Conscience' are truly lovely - that typeface could become a key part of the MWC global brand name.

Serious Questions

But - There are serious questions here that must be pondered:

What can be done to make MWC News better? - But the questions get even harder:

What can be done to make MWC News more successful, more viable, more self-sustaining, financially and otherwise? - Even though MWC news is a labour of commitment, rather than a mere pursuit of success, you and MWC News need to be able to survive in the long run, and sustain the energies of yourself and the others who work on it.

And regardless of the quality of MWC News, the main thing is that it must find its audience numbers. If it is very high quality, but the readership is low, then it will not be able to sustain itself or serve its purpose. The question of audience, leads to another question:

What is the *realistic* purpose of MWC News? - In other words, what is the purpose of MWC News, not in terms of what we might wish it to be - in some ideal, imaginary world - but what is the purpose of MWC News in a way that is genuinely realistic?

Compared to a Leader in Alternative News

Perhaps the most illuminating line of thought, is to think about MWC News in relation to other alternative news services in English. Is MWC News unique enough, different enough, to justify its separate existence? Can MWC News learn something from other alternative news sources, that have been more successful in meeting some of the challenges?

It's indeed interesting to consider what is perhaps the most successful of all alternative news sources in English - Asia Times Online, put out of Hong Kong, though having its roots in a Bangkok-based independent media operation. Asia Times is extremely important, and judging from its visible advertising, is extremely successful. Yet, its articles are often both radical and extremely illuminating. It has become an almost indispensable international media and intelligence source. The "magic mix" here of alternative and radical news has somehow become both commercially successful and market popular.

A sign of the success of Asia Times Online: Quite remarkably, on 9 May 2007, Asia Times Online published an article by alternative journalist Patrick Cockburn - even though Cockburn's own brother, Alexander Cockburn, runs the itself quite "successful" alternative-news CounterPunch website!

What makes Asia Times so successful? - In a nutshell, it provides in one location, a variety of truly fresh and radical news about a large niche of the modern world, that cannot be found elsewhere in English in one convenient location. It is not "general daily news", though touching often on Europe and the Americas and Africa, but it does indeed cover (a) significant geopolitical news (b) centred on a major portion of the world, i.e., Asia, where many of the world's most significant develepments are taking place.

Asia Times is a "niche" news service, not a "general" news service, but its niche is large and significant, and its news articles are often fresh, radical and revelatory - to the degree that Asia Times often illuminates the whole world in a dramatic way.

Asia Times online is not just a progressive 'perspective', re-hashing familiar news from a progressive viewpoint; it avoids that common failing. Asia Times Online really tells people new things, and shows people information, they are not easily seeing anywhere else.

People read Asia Times because they - above all - learn dramatic new things they find interesting.

A few of the writers at Asia Times Online are simply top-class in the world. Months or even years before other publications in English, Asia Times Online has revealed the real truth of what has been going on in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. Asia Times Online has become significant to the point of being "indispensable" now, given its journalism about the world's flashpoint centres of war.

A moral here perhaps, is that of not being afraid of being a "niche" publication, so long as the "niche" is large enough and significant enough, and the "news" is really fresh enough and illuminating enough.

The success pattern of Asia Times Online may be hard to duplicate - and may not be the intended direction of MWC news - but it perhaps has some lessons to be pondered.

Compared to Other Alternative News

Then, it's perhaps helpful to think about MWC News in relation to other alternative news sites on the web, some of them successful, others perhaps less so.

There are quite popular and known sites, like the well-known Alternet, and many others like the above-mentioned CounterPunch, who have both marketed themselves into relatively high-traffic positions. The key in the traffic numbers of sites like these is that, along with a perceived "leftist" or "progressive" perspective, they also have created the impression of running articles with new or illuminating information in them. - That seems to be the centre to driving traffic to progressive media sites.

One can also see it is very hard to sustain that impression, however. Alternet does well, but CounterPunch at times appears very tired, narrow and repetitive, banging a little too often on the same drums, with the same small clique of narrow writers.

Another deficiency is that some of these sites, like AlterNet, are too closely limited to the US and to the obsession about internal US mini-issues - this can be quite dull, even to Americans themselves who have come to realise that such obsessions can be farcical and distracting, rather than helpful. US people tend to think they are 'radical' just because they have finally woken up to some of the problems with their own society, that have long been obvious to the rest of the world.

It is simply inevitable that, given the size of the US population, there would be a certain preponderance of attempts at "progressive sites" from the US - though at the same time, those sites are limited by the US-centred and somewhat narrowed thinking of the Americans who run them. And these sites all hit the brick wall of frustration in a US that squashes most any real progressive political action.

Outside of the US, there are some interesting niche progressive news sites and e-mail newsletters, for example from Canada, the often-interesting Straight Goods by Ish Theilheimer, or others like rabble.ca. Though it's not clear that such sites have achieved a "break-out", beyond being labours of passion that are appreciated in their own small circles. For such websites, their serving of news and commentary in a niche, is both their appeal and their limitation.

Media With Conscience - an "Alt-BBC"?

Media With Conscience, with its colourful photo presence on the web, is perhaps trying to do something extremely remarkable, and on the verge of doing it well - that of being an alternative to the BBC web news service. Even though the BBC is far ahead of something like the woefully propagandistic CNN, the world-leading BBC is still, ultimately but very subtly, in the same mold of serving the Anglo-American governments and the multi-national corporate interests. In fact, it is the very subtlety of serving those interests, that enables the BBC to have its global influence and prestige. You perhaps know the old joke that BBC stands for the 'British Bullsh*t Corporation'.

Obviously, there should be a thoughtful alternative to the BBC. And some major players have been trying, with a significant attempt recently by France24 - Though France 24 has suffered from a boxy main page that doesn't look anywhere near as appealing as MWC News.

Maybe the most significant global alternative to the BBC in English, is the English Al Jazeera at aljazeera.net - functioning now for many English readers as a helpful corrective to the mainline news services, bringing other news to better focus and attention. Though many English readers haven't found their way to Al Jazeera, and may only know the name via Western media references, which convey a mistaken impression that it is an unhelpfully narrow Islamic or Arab-centred news service. - It is always hard to break through the barriers of convention, as MWC News realises.

MWC News, more than Al Jazeera, is a little closer in Western image to being a BBC rival, in that it conveys a more general broad image to the Western perception. To the person bouncing off the BBC site, MWC also provides fresh general world news through its agency feeds, along with a vivid mix of exclusive content from often impressive contributors.

Nonetheless, there are major questions -

Are there problems with MWC that prevent it from functioning more effectively as an "Alt-BBC" news service?

Even given a colourful excellence as a worthy rival to the BBC, how can MWC be marketed to find a large enough audience to be self-sustaining?

MWC site issues

On a very specific level, there are some functional issues with the MWC site that prevent it from being more successful, despite the great good looks of much of the site, especially the use of photos.

One issue, the easier one, is that the MWC articles often display too broadly across the computer screen. It is a well-established rule of displaying text on computer screens, that the text should remain within 50-85 characters per line, no more. Human eyes simply do not want to read text across the width of even a 15-inch computer screen. - Hence the way that many of the free blog sites on the web, helpfully place all text provided into narrow columns within these parameters.

This is just an annoying technical matter to fix. The other problem is, I imagine, a bigger one.

The colourful and photo-filled MWC News site, sometimes has slow download times, given the amount of graphic content being displayed. This is understandable, given MWC's limited resources, and the colourful nature of the site - But it is very much an important issue, inhibiting the growth of MWC as well. - I imagine the only thing to really fix this, is an infusion of cash for bandwith, something that MWC does not have easily to hand.

A pathway forward

MWC has achieved so much by way of excellence. And the excellence shows, in the look of the site, and in the wonderful e-mail newsletters with the colourful little photos and news snippets. It deserves to have more success - but how?

One way - which MWC certainly deserves - is that of a major investor, who would supply sustaining funding to MWC, to enable the resources for quicker page downloads to viewers, and also funding to obtain more advertising and marketing clout. - Someone out there, who has the funds, should be willing to invest in MWC in the hope of taking its existing excellence, and building a world-renowned progressive news site in the next year or two.

But I don't know how to find that person, or to suggest how to find one, and such a wealthy but progressive-minded investor might not be found quickly.

But I do have an idea about something to augment the pattern of success for MWC:

I think there is an important message here, both as regards the success of Al Jazeera, and that of Asia Times Online: Don't be afraid of the niche identity, as part of the means to become a successful generally valued news service.

MWC News, intrinsically has access to one of the most successful brand images in the world, that it is not using, but I think it could use more helpfully to its own success. I think MWC News would be strengthened and enhanced, not limited, by revealing more of its home location.

Despite things like the limitations of the Harper government, Canadian complicity in tragedies in Afghanistan, and the fact that Canada itself might be invaded by the Americans over the next few years - one of the most successful and positive images in the world, is still that of Canada and Canadians.

The dream of many people in the world now is to be Canadian, its natural beauty and warm people still helping to create the image of a land of dreams, while much of the world sees the US as a horror-show. - For example, a Chinese neighbour here recently told me, that the popular dream of success in China now, is to be well-off enough to be able to get a home in Canada.

With MWC News, my own strong inclination would be to shift the site's image in a slightly fresh direction, with a new slogan, something like:

Media With Conscience - Progressive World News Based in Canada

Which I think would actually be much more powerful than the 'site without borders' slogan.

Canadians are by nature modest, unlike Americans they realise the world does not revolve around themselves. But it is precisely the Canadian virtues that the world loves, and wants to know better - even Americans, subconsciously admiring their luckier neighbours to the north.

As Asia Times Online has shown, there's no contradiction between being 'local' and illuminating the whole world at the same time.

World news from a Canadian-based perspective, is perhaps an idea whose time has really come. Just as with a human individual, our cultural roots are what help make us more truly individual and warm and real. I think the same could be true for MWC News, which actually does show what the world perceives as the "Canadian" virtues.

MWC News, without at all deviating from its global news format, could also very successfully introduce some more Canadian progressive content, making use of more cross-links and collaboration with others from the Canadian progressive scene. This would likely build the audience for MWC on a local scale - the first step perhaps in making MWC more of a general success as well. - And it would charm general readers to have more access, a window into the warm Canadian progressive mind.

My personal willingness to assist MWC News

On a personal level, to help MWC News expand, as a global news source, I thought perhaps that beginning in June, I could start to provide a weekly exclusive column to MWC from Brussels, a "Brussels Report" regarding issues from Europe that are of global interest. I'll agree to send a short column once every week, although of course you need not print it if you don't have space or the particular column doesn't fit in for you.

But a "Brussels Report", I thought, as well as being helpful generally, would also help to provide the full-range image, if you did think to allow a little more of the Canadian background into the identity of MWC as "Progressive World News Based in Canada".

Perhaps I'll indeed take the steps to become a formally accredited journalist here in Brussels for MWC News, thus enabling me to perhaps conduct a few interviews of prominent figures, and give MWC even more of a traffic boost.

Thank you again for publishing some of my articles.

With all good wishes,

Les

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