When we said September was fundraising month at NM we weren’t kidding. We’ve had a great year thanks to readers like you who came to the rescue when we were facing closure in 2010. We are now working to make NM viable in the long term and to break out of the fundraising cycle.
So far 282 of you have signed up as ongoing supporters. That’s an impressive start to our fundraising month, but we need many more of you to get on board.
We need at least 1500 of you to sign up or renew your support by the end of September or we are facing imminent closure.
It costs as little as $4.60 a month to become a supporter.
Sign up here.
It’s an interesting time to be asking people to fund a media venture. Public trust in the media in Australia is low. In fact, this survey conducted in February 2011 shows that Australians have one of the lowest rates of public trust in the media in the world, at 32 per cent. And that percentage is bumped up by all of those people who believe in Google.
The survey was run before the phone hacking scandal broke. This week, the pay packages for News Corp execs for the last financial year were revealed. It’s unlikely that they’d do much to instil confidence in the way the big media operates. James Murdoch turned down his habitual bonus as if he were administering a slap on his own wrist for his shoddy handling of the phone-hacking revelations. Let’s be clear here. He said no to a $6 million bonus but still took home $18 million. And Rupert Murdoch banked over $30 million for his work over that 12 months.
At New Matilda, well, let’s just say we’re operating at the other end of the scale. It’s a no-waste operation that we’re running and within the limits imposed by our resources we make an important, independent contribution to public debate.
Between us, your editors, and the independent journalists who write for us, we have published over 500 pieces of reportage and analysis this year already.
And we want to do more. We believe in independent voices and as our readers we know you do as well.
Please show your support.
Marni and Catri