Great interview from Buzzflash. Symbolman and I talked to this guy a couple years back, and he's been raising money to start a REAL news network - I believe I read he raised something to the tune of $15 million to get it going. There is also a four part interview on Kos from January of this year I can dig up and post if there is interest.
Great thing is that they will be broadcasting REAL NEWS, something I'd hoped to see when Al Gore launched Current TV instead of the rudderless and mundane content I feel they show.
Anyway, here's the interview:
Paul Jay and The Real TV Mean To Bring Us Video-Based News Without the Government and Corporate SpinFor a few years, Paul Jay has been doing something that progressives keep yearning for, but don't have the resources to do, because the big money Democrats aren't into financing alternative television news coverage. So, with only a vision in his head that drives him relentlessly, Paul Jay is creating "The Real News" television network, headquarted in Toronto, Canada.
Jay is a man after our own fashion (BuzzFlash serves on the Advisory Board of "The Real News"). He will accept no advertising, corporate funding or government funding. Like BuzzFlash, he knows that some day, if you go the route of dependency on the corporate world or governments, you are going to have to start pulling your punches. So, Jay is going to rely, as BuzzFlash does, on the generosity of supporters to fund "The Real News."
...snip...
BuzzFlash: Where is the project at this point?
Paul Jay: We started in 2003 in all seriousness, and we now have a 7,000 square-foot studio space. We have a full HDTV studio. We're hiring a newsroom and other people. We're up now to about eighteen full-time people.
We just completed a short video that gives the vision of what the news service will look like when it's funded. As part of doing the video, we've created alliances and working relationships with journalists across the United States and around the world, and we're still building that team. Over the summer, we're going to be doing prototypes of what the daily news show will look like. Then in the fall, we plan to start a regular daily service -- a modest, not yet full-blown version, but enough for people to get a taste of what we're going to be doing.
BuzzFlash: How will this be disseminated? Of course, you have a website that people can go to, which is therealnews.com. Is the website going to play a role in terms of posting breaking news?
Paul Jay: Yes, we're beginning with an Internet platform, which includes more than just our website, and in 2008, we'll be adding a conventional television platform. But we look at the Internet as a complex of platforms, with our website being just one component of it.
We're spending a lot of time and resources building our You-Tube channel, our Facebook space, MySpace. We've isolated about twenty of these social-content platforms where there's already millions of people going there. We're going to create almost replicas of our website on many of these platforms. That way we don't have to wait for people to come to us. We can go where people already are.
...snip...
BuzzFlash: Are you going to be putting video journalism on YouTube before you begin broadcasting on television?
Paul Jay: Yes, in fact, we've already got a YouTube channel called The Real News, and it will be getting much more active over the summer. Then in the fall, we'll be doing regular daily breaking stories all day long on our website, and putting them up on YouTube and in these other areas. If you were to come to our website three times in a day, you would get fresh breaking stories every time you come.
We have a deal with APTN -- Associated Press Television Network -- so we have an AP satellite on our roof, as well as three other satellites. We're pulling in channels from all over the world. We're going to use the AP pictures, combined with interviewing and talking to local journalists, where we're really going to get our journalism from. We'll be getting breaking video footage as fast as CNN gets it.
Whole interview here, fascinating, highly recommended read:
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/070
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