Hello ZNet Update Recipient, This isn't your usual ZNet update. In this message we are requesting something from you -- your opinion.
The many Z projects (Z Magazine, ZNet, Z Video, and Z Media Institute) are joining together with about 100 of our frequent writers to try to provide our supporters a much larger, more sustained, more immediate, and more comprehensive media system than we have ever previously offered. We are writing because we need to know your reaction to this possible project, called Z Daily and we hope that after reading briefly about Z Daily here, you will go to http://www.zmag.org/newsustainerprog.htm to learn more, and to give us critically needed feedback via the brief poll located there. (You can also click the prominent link to the description and poll on the ZNet top page anytime). Z Daily would generate approximately 20 new original commentaries each weekday, plus book reviews, interviews, organizational profiles, and a debate or two each weekend, plus additional interactive forums for discussions with writers, and diverse other facilities as well. Participants in the Z Daily Program could choose to receive by email as few as one, up to as many as twenty commentaries a day, by easily designating the topics or the writers whose work they wish to be sent. Participants could also (or instead) opt to receive a linked list of articles matching their preferences plus descriptions each day or week. (And yes, Z Daily will have RSS feeds, a new distribution technology that is very nice, as an option as well.) For instance, if we create Z Daily and you become a participant, you might choose to receive one featured essay each day (which would be the default), or two or three. Or you might want those featured essays, plus everything about Asia or everything about Latin America or all the essays on vision and strategy or all the news reporting or some combination of many other topical and stylistic possibilities. Or you might want some topics or styles, but also all essays by one or more of our 100 writers, again in any pattern and combination, easily altered at your convenience. You start with the default is one essay daily, and you indicate and easily adapt your preferences for more (or less) as your experience moves you to. Alternatively, or in addition, you might want the linked list of articles and descriptions by email. Participants will also be able to access all the Z Daily material online with full search capabilities including efficient display options by date, topic, or author, and searchable for text. Z Daily will generate an easy-to-use library of as many as 5,000 original articles per year. Additionally, many people around the world can use a subset of these articles for local print distribution, with Z having already paid the writers. Of course, no individual will read every Z Daily article every day or week. Who reads the entire New York Times each day, much less all of the mainstream media? The point is to provide a broad range, so people can access what serves their needs. The pieces you don't use, someone else makes excellent use of, and vice versa. Everyone on the left criticizes mainstream media for maintaining elite social relations. Everyone on the left wishes that progressives and leftists had stronger and more comprehensive alternative media with which to reach out to a more mainstream audience. Z Daily is proposing to do just that. But we need your feedback first. To pay writers for 400 articles a month plus pay for many new facilities and additional staff, will cost a lot, but the bottom line is, if Z Daily can inspire 30,000 supporters, we will be able to launch and pay for the full operation with modest self-selected per user donations (in most cases of from $3 to $10 a month), with no other funding sources. We want to do Z Daily. Many writers are gearing up to participate. But we need your vote for or against -- and your guidance to know if it is a worthy and feasible project. Please visit http://www.zmag.org/newsustainerprog.htm -- or to go to the ZNet top page at www.zmag.org/weluser.htm and click to visit the Z Daily pages and poll. Once at the Z Daily page, you will find an introductory description of the project, a sample of Z Daily, a sample form for selecting which articles to receive, and finally, a poll about Z Daily. Please think about the meaning of this project for you, and also about its potential meaning for others, for alternative media generally, and for left writers. It will help us immeasurably if you would answer our seven poll questions. If the response goes well, the new project could be in place by January 2004, which also begins Z's 17th year of operation. So, thank you in advance for taking the poll...and we hope you will like and benefit from this idea. Signed... The Z Staff: Michael Albert, Lydia Sargent, Eric Sargent, and Andy Dunn and, from among the 100 plus writers who will be involved Noam Chomsky, U.S. Susan George, France Tariq Ali, Brit Cynthia Peters, U.S. Dennis Brutus, So. Afr. Sonali Kolhatkar, U.S. John Pilger, Brit Vandana Shiva, India Howard Zinn, U.S. Katharine Ainger, Brit ===================================This message has been brought to you by ZNet (http://www.zmag.org). Visit our site for subscription options.
