Menu
Ireland's political and cultural magazine
April/May VILLAGE
S
OME weeks ago Vincent Browne
announced on the Pat Kenny radio
show that he intended to create a
crowd-funded, democratic new people’s mag-
azine. Perhaps like a print run of the People’s
Debate that he is now fronting monthly on
TV? “Imagine the editorial meeting?” spec-
ulated one wag to me recently, reflecting on
reports about Vincent Browne’s mooted
reader-supported media venture. “It would
be like the TV show with people argu-
ing in the studio, but times bigger”. Give
Browne credit for thinking big, but is this a
case of imagining a European-sized venture
in an Irish-sized market?
Browne, founder and former editor of
Village magazine, first mooted the idea
last year in the Irish Times, noting that FC
Barcelona was owned not by “an oligarch or
even a cabal of oligarchs” but by its support-
ers, paying € a year for their membership
fees. Browne suggested that a collective of
upwards of , people in Ireland pitch-
ing in € apiece could suppor t a € million
journalism project, based on the Barcelona
model. Since then he seems to have roped
in support from recently resigned CEO of
Newstalk Radio, Frank Cronin as well as
from his long-standing right-hand man, Tom
Vavasour and nephew, journalist Malachy
who until recently ran politio.ie, a left-wing
news website, with support from his uncle. It
all prompted The Phoenix to hail Browne as
the Lionel Messi of Irish journalism.
Reader-supported ventures have worked
in Europe. Berlin-based left-leaning daily
Die Tageszeitung is owned by a collective of
, members each contributing a mini-
mum stake of €. The paper has a staff of
and , subscribers in a country
with a population of million people and
a broad political left. France’s Mediapart is
another comparative venture which operates
as a purely digital venture. Founded in
by former Le Monde editor Edwy Plenel,
Mediapart employs more than journal-
ists and confounded its critics by turning a
profit after three years. It’s financed solely by
subscriptions and charges its , users
€ a month for access. Mediapart broke the
Bettencourt story and the story of budget
minister Jérome Cahuzac’s offshore bank
accounts and the site also covers economic
and cultural affairs. Plenel believes that the
site will need , subscribers to have
a long-term future.
There lies the rub. Die Tageszeitung
and Mediapart are supported by ,
to , subscribers in countries with
respective populations of million and
million. Mediapart, for instance, has the
support of roughly in , French peo-
ple. At a similar rate, we could expect about
, Irish people to support a similar ven-
ture, a fraction of the rate that sustains the
German and French projects.
Vincent Browne declined to talk to
Village about the venture, saying it would
be premature to discuss the project at this
stage. In a recent interview in the Irish Times
he failed to even mention the venture. James
Redmond of Rabble magazine suggests that
Browne’s mooted project is re-inventing the
wheel. “Is there not a danger that people get
sucked up in this proposal at the expense of
groundwork laid over the years by people
that have been mounting a guerrilla war
against our drab media landscape without
any backing from more established media
makers?”, he wonders.
Rabble has printed seven issues since
, with recent editions running to
, copies, and relies on reader inter-
action through its website and social media
presence to keep readers engaged and sup-
portive. A crowdfunding campaign last year
raised money to support the print issue, but
Redmond describes that campaign as just
one tactic to tap into and promote a philos-
ophy and practice of radical media making.
“Functionally, we’ve been like some hybrid
cross-breed of a not-for-profit media maker
and boot-strapping start up. We’ve always
talked about building a fiercely independent
reader supported media. It’s a very old and
simple idea of getting your audience to back
your publication and lift it out of a reliance
on advertising.”
Journalist Gerard Cunningham used
crowdfunding site Indiegogo last year to try
to raise funds for an investigative journalism
site, but found crowdfunding is more suited
to one-off projects. It also relies heavily on
spreading the word through marketing and
promotion, and mainstream media outlets
are reluctant to promote competitive ven-
tures. Cunningham thinks that Ireland may
be too small to support such a venture, but
admits that a more high profile figurehead
may have more success.
Browne’s high media profile could work
to the veteran journalist’s advantage should
he plunge into the uncrowded waters of
independent Irish media with a popularly
supported website or paper, though even
Browne’s most ardent admirers might hesi-
tate to invest money with him. “A far more
fruitful adventure might be to set up some
sort of democratically run media organi-
sation that raises funds from the unions,
progressive businesses and philanthropists
but that then facilitates existing projects and
new ones in applying on merit for finances to
continue the work they are already doing,”
said Redmond. Village has reflected pre-
viously on the lousy choice facing new
independent media establishments: reliance
on ongoing fundraising, on millionaire or
billionaire funders, or on philanthropists.
Naturally, no oligarchs need apply. •
Vincent Browne goes
a-crowd-funding.
By Ronan Lynch
Not Denis
anyway
VINCENT BROWNE MEDIA
the
Barcelona
model
