The Scoop Ecosystem Turns 20

The Scoop Ecosystem Turns 20

Project 2019-05-31 15:55:27 +1200

• 20% off all ScoopPro and ScoopPro Citizen subscriptions + exciting rewards 
• Seeking 35 new ScoopPro Organisational Subscribers and 200 ScoopPro Citizen Members.

Founded in June 1999 - Scoop celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. Scoop.co.nz is now the longest continuous running digital-only, free, public-facing news website in NZ. (Slightly older than Stuff and slightly younger than NZ Herald Online).

Scoop is an ecosystem - a decentralised organisation and home for news and views from a diverse range of voices. It is a complex, living, breathing organism made up of a variety of autonomous players and parts existing in an intricate balance. This structure is a big part of Scoop’s resilience over so many years.

The ecosystem of people and organisations contributing to Scoop have been a key part of the successful thriving of Scoop for two decades. The core team are sincerely grateful to all these groups for helping Scoop reach this point, whether by submitting or reading news, donating money or time or subscribing to ScoopPro. We truly could not be where we are without every one of you. 

The Scoop model is unique among media enterprises in NZ and globally. Scoop has been serving NZ with independent news sourced through a decentralised network of journalists and organisations providing press releases - as well as our own independent journalism for 20 years. This has proved to be a highly resilient and efficient ecosystem-based approach. 

However, an ecosystem flourishes only when all of its parts are healthy, thriving and in a balance of mutual exchange. We are at a crucial juncture for the continued thriving of Scoop and independent online news in New Zealand in general.

ScoopPro - A Path to sustainability

Enter ScoopPro - our new service offering essential professional media tools and a professional use license for Scoop.co.nz to professional users. The ScoopPro model requires that those using the Scoop platform professionally (for research, media intelligence and prioritised Press release publishing) pay a reasonable subscription fee. The new ScoopPro Citizen service now offers some of these tools to citizen readers who wish to subscribe.

Currently 265 ScoopPro organisations receive a professional use license and additional professional media services and benefits as subscribers.

In addition 174 generous members now receive “ScoopPro Citizen” Email Newsletter updates of their choice which offer professional-level news intelligence on key sectors, topics and all 16 NZ Regions.

Scoop urgently needs 50 new subscribing organisations (+ 200 Citizen members) to join these existing subscribers and members before the end of 2019.

ScoopPro Subscription and Financial Progress

Reaching the target of at least 300 member organisations and 200 new ScoopPro Citizen subscribers is necessary to prove the ScoopPro model conclusively. This will see Scoop break even for the first time since our advertising revenue dramatically declined in 2015.

ScoopPro membership and financial revenue figures for the last five years show just how close this innovative model is to making a real breakthrough into sustainability and a flourishing future. (These numbers exclude ScoopPro Citizen)

Fig. 1 ScoopPro Membership 

Fig 2. ScoopPro Revenue Split and Projection  

Both these financial and membership figures clearly tell the story of steady growth of ScoopPro membership and associated ScoopPro revenue since the launch of this model in 2015. 

Fig. 2 also demonstrates that the ScoopPro model is reducing our reliance on dramatically reduced advertising revenues and other income such as donations. In fact, it shows that Scoop's operating budget will be 100% non-advertising funded by Jan 2020.

“Scoop 3.0” Crowd Equity Campaign

Reaching this target will also place Scoop in a strong position to run a successful equity crowdfunding campaign in 2020 to fund Scoop’s ambitious transformation plan - Scoop 3.0.

This planned equity raise will make Scoop collectively owned by its users building a transparent, collaborative, decentralised and useful ‘Information Ecosystem’ for professionals and serious newsreaders.

This ecosystem will feature a new ‘deeply collaborative’ approach to investigative journalism on crucial issues that matter to our readers, as well as a platform with smoother user experience, personalisation, customisation and more powerful analytics.

It will also include enhanced public relations tools including a soon-to-be-announced Press Release Distribution service to boost your press releases published on Scoop to other media organisations.

This equity raise will allow us to continue doing the work needed to expand the unique Scoop vision and model. This vision will allow us to make Scoop more useful and impactful for all involved and for democracy in NZ. (More info on the Scoop 3.0 plan here.)

Will you or an organisation you influence join us in this effort? 

Organisations/Professionals

You can support by:

1. Claiming a 20% Discount on a ScoopPro Organisational License / Media Services Package by registering through our ScoopPro site or contacting us directly!!; or

2. Sponsoring a section on Scoop.co.nz - claim discount by pledge or by contacting Scoop directly now. More information on sponsorship options here.

Limited Edition ScoopPro Notebooks with Koru design by Scott Broadley (available as a reward)

Citizen Readers:

You can support by:

1.   Pledging to access an annual ScoopPro Citizen membership as well as rewards of the Scoop notebook or Freerange Journalism books; or

2. Sharing this with any organisations or professionals you know of that may care about the future of independent media in Aotearoa.

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