Newsroom has been publishing now for three and a half months – and we are proud to acknowledge the unexpected but welcome support of 553 readers who have given money via PressPatron to back the kind of journalism we are doing.
PressPatron is the easy-to-use, safe way of supporting quality journalism. We feature it on the black banner at the top of our home page on Newsroom.co.nz – and at the bottom of every story as a red button saying ‘Become a Supporter’.
– Support Newsroom with a PressPatron donation here
– Join our free Daily Briefing mailing list here
The PressPatron service, developed in Wellington, is also being used by Public Address, (Russell Brown’s blogsite) and by e-Tangata, the Māori and Pacific weekly magazine site, among about half a dozen others.
It allows readers to contribute, say, $5 or more as a one-off show of support for a particular story or subject area – or $5 or more a month, ongoing.
Newsroom’s goal is to be a sustainable, independent source of quality New Zealand news and current affairs, a calm and balanced home for news on the Things that Matter.
So far we have had 553 people voluntarily contribute a total of just over $19,000. About 60 percent of the donations are monthly commitments which would more than double that support after a year.
All the money which comes to Newsroom, after a small commission to the PressPatron platform, will be used to fund journalists, stories, video storytelling and work from freelance and contracted professionals.
Establishing a newsroom in Auckland and Wellington and forming a network of informed commentators and contributors is a costly business. Quality does not come cheap.
The voluntary contributions via PressPatron are one element of a funding base which has involved:
– Foundation Supporters such as Holden NZ, Chorus, Victoria University and the University of Auckland
– subscribers to our paid email-based news service called Newsroom Pro, and
– equity investment directly into the company Newsroom NZ Ltd
Newsroom has an initial audience target of 100,000 monthly unique visitors, using the measure applied industry-wide by Nielsen Research, by the end of our first year, March 2018. After 15 complete weeks, we are on our way to reaching that number well within that timeframe.
Our thanks to all, big and small, who have supported this journalism venture for the public good. We are keenly focused on delivering for you on the Things that Matter.
