What a week so far!
Since publishing our first Substack newsletter on Monday, we’ve gotten over 4,200 views and hundreds of new subscribers, including 67 paid supporters. We’ve raised nearly $3,000 in immediate revenue, which will help us pay for our logo, nonprofit incorporation fees, marketing, web hosting, and other initial costs.
We didn’t anticipate nearly this level of support so quickly. It’s a clear sign that people really want an alternative to corporate media and the corporate apps that promote it. And, in many cases, people are willing to pay for it.
Walker, our advisers, and I are working with the great folks at the nonprofit Progressive Coders Network to build iPhone and Android apps. We’re a nonprofit operation; our objective is not to make oodles of cash. Our mission is to elevate quality, independent media while giving news consumers a more honest, informative, and enjoyable media experience than what they get today. We are keeping your interests in mind so we can do this.
So please take five minutes to fill out our first user survey! This will help us as we finalize the user experience design so the developers can get going.
Walker and I thank you SO much for financially supporting us as we build this thing. We will never run a corporate ad. We will be 100% transparent with our finances. We are committed to uniting independent media to take on the corporate conglomerates that dominate our news ecosystem.
To do this, we need to raise a lot more money. We’ll need staff in editing, writing, grant writing, social media and marketing, communications, and tech development. We’ll need an accountant and legal counsel. We want to build a thriving nonprofit with a unionized workforce.
If you haven’t done so yet, please consider supporting us for $5 a month or $55 or more per year. Once you become a supporter, you’ll get an invite to our Slack community, where you can ask the team questions or share your recommendations.
New Additions!
Since Monday, we’ve added several new media partners to the OptOut network. (See our launch page for a growing list of partners.) Please welcome these awesome news sites and podcasts to the family and mash those subscribe buttons. Our nearly 50 partners have all decided that solidarity among independent outlets is the way to take on the corporate media giants and give you a better way to stay informed.
- Acute Condition—a newsletter from the American Economic Liberties Project’s Olivia Webb on consolidation, corporatization, and Big Tech in health care.
- Africa Is a Country—a nonprofit news site for analysis on politics and culture from Africa.
- Citations Needed—a podcast about about the intersection of media, PR, and power, hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson.
- Means TV—the world’s first worker-owned, post-capitalist video streaming service.
- Passage—a Canadian publication of thoughtful political, economic, and cultural ideas from a left-wing perspective.
- Podside Picnic—a podcast about science fiction, fantasy, and other stories, hosted by Pete Johannsen and Connor Southard.
- The Discourse—the “Fourth-Blackest Podcast on the Left.”
- Trustworthy Media—a news aggregator that collects headlines from 300+ independent media sources all in one place.
Thank you for your interest in, support of, and help with OptOut! A rising tide lifts all boats, and if we work together and expand this essential network we’ll get to say goodbye to corporate media.
Don’t forget: Take the survey!
