Shelley Seale is a journalist, content creator, award-winning writer, author, publication designer, editor and communications professional. She can be reached at www.shelleyseale.com. and Twitter
What’s Happening:
Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, is poised to launch Newspack, an open-source publishing and revenue-generating platform for news organizations. Newspack is designed to address some of the most persistent obstacles to creating economically sustainable models for journalism, and will focus particularly on small and medium sized organizations that specialize in local news. Civil, a community-owned journalism network based on transparency and trust, will be a key element that will be natively integrated into this WordPress toolkit.
Why it Matters:
Independent newsrooms around the world are working to monetize, create value and become economically viable. Cooperative models of community journalism, such as Civil, prioritize journalistic integrity and help newsrooms work together for sustainability and success. As part of the new Newspack platform, this will give independent and local publishers more tools at their disposal in this endeavor.
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