The NewStandard project aims to provide a reliable, objective news service that combines the independence and edginess of the alternative press with the professionalism of the mainstream media.
The full site will launch on 1 December and is currently recruiting writers, reporters, photographers and other staff for the project, which will be entirely funded by donations and subscriptions.
At a time when many web sites - even established brands - are struggling to find a successful business model for online news, it may seem ambitious to establish a brand new site based on paid subscriptions. But the editors are confident that this lack of 'brand recognition' will actually become an advantage.
"We've found something people badly need, but which by its very nature cannot be provided by competing outlets. I guess you could say that independent, progressive news is in fact our brand," Ms Azulay told dotJournalism.
"We're selling more than just news. We're selling a different means of producing the news, and a fundamentally different kind of news. Subscriptions and donations go toward building a sustainable, radically different news institution; one that reflects different values and has a different perspective than its corporate counterparts."
The founders aim to keep costs low by pioneering a new kind of ‘no-frills’ news culture.
"There will be no ridiculous executive salaries and no ridiculous editorial salaries," said Mr Dominick.
"No marketing department. No profits and no dividends. No janitorial contractors and no expensive software development firm that sits around playing first-person shooter games while faking progress reports," added Ms Azulay.
"We'll be working almost exclusively with freelancers and stringers at first. We have had more than 300 journalists contact us in the past four days, most of them professionals who want to shift from mainstream to alternative media."
Although some writers may choose to work for free, the founders are keen to prove that their alternative news model can be successful.
"Some journalists who have exclusive contracts with other outlets will be writing under pseudonyms and not accepting any fees," said Ms Azulay.
"But our ethics direct us to pay people for their efforts. We think one of the failings of alternative media has been its inability to pay for quality work."
The site will feature substantial international coverage, but will also focus on domestic issues in the US and Canada. News briefs of around 100-200 words, often linking to other news sources, will allow the team to cover a large variety of issues.
"We'll definitely be paying close attention to Iraq and we will probably have a lot of coverage of social movements and strife in Latin America, which is much hotter than most Americans realise.
"We’ll also recognise Africa beyond famine, AIDS and warfare, and we'll note US and European involvement in all these issues."
The new site will feature many services provided by commercial news sites, including a customisable mailing system, a weblog and a multi-channel RSS feed.
"In technological terms, very early on, our site is going to be every bit as good as any the biggest mainstream news sites. That's a peculiarity of the medium, and we plan to take full advantage of it," Mr Dominick said.
Mr Dominick has worked with alternative media for 10 years as a journalist, editor, web software developer and designer. His work as the contributing editor and main site developer for indy news site Zmag gave him the confidence to set up the NewStandard project, especially because ZMag operates on a successful paid content donation model that he helped to establish.
Ms Azulay has experience both as a journalist and activist and has covered social struggles in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Middle East. In the past year, much of her work has been focused on anti-Muslim and anti-Arab issues in the US.
While the web provides many alternative news sources - including Indymedia, Alternet, ZMag and Schnews - Dominick and Azulay feel that they often fail to provide a sustainable, effective news service.
"What the Left has in abundance is commentary sites, but almost none of them provide what most people would call 'news' on a regular basis," explained Mr Dominick.
"The exception is Indymedia, which lacks consistency, we think because it cannot afford to pay its editors and contributors.
"The time is right, in terms of business models and audiences, to build a web-based news source providing news from a truly progressive perspective. We will cover stories the big guys can't be bothered with, but will stick to the standards of research, voice and style maintained by the mainstream media."
But Dominick and Azulay believe that by refusing to dedicate adequate coverage to political protest and alternative opinion, the mainstream media have created a new market that the NewStandard can provide for.
"It's a troubling trend: more popular dissent coinciding with less news coverage of dissent," said Mr Dominick.
"In the US there are a lot of people who know the mainstream media isn't covering dissent, and they know because they saw or were part of a demonstration that received extremely shallow coverage by the corporate media.
"It's only when you ARE the news that you truly realise how poor coverage is in the corporate press."
The main problem of profit-driven sites, according to the editors, is the dependent relationship between publishers and advertisers, which often means that editorial objectivity is compromised.
"Advertisers understandably want large, affluent audiences," said Mr Dominick.
"Commercial news sites are institutionally driven to provide those, and the main way they do it is by retooling their content to appeal to those audiences. Covering poverty issues as human interest stories, for instance, rather than as a chronic, inherent problem associated with the economic system their shareholders benefit greatly from.
"Editors will deny it so they can sleep at night, but I think most journalists realise what's going on at the top."
They believe that their credibility and trustworthiness will be built on the content itself.
"It’s from a perspective people can believe, and that's a perspective that reflects their own daily experiences and their own values," said Mr Dominick.
"And on the internet, it's a lot easier to look respectable on a low budget, so people will be more likely to give you the few minutes it takes to show them you really are putting out a quality product."
See also:
http://newstandardnews.net/promo
http://www.indymedia.org
http://www.counterpunch.org
http://www.alternet.org
http://www.zmag.org
http://www.schnews.org
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