And are there news, #journalism or #mediacoops that I should add to this list? (I'm sure I am missing loads...) - #coops #cooperatives

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Journalism coops seem utopian. What’s it like working in one? "If I was less self-directed, I'd probably be freaking out."

As ever the contrast with the scale of the scene in the US is stark, as this @niemanlab.org piece shows. It‘s a good and detailed piece, but it’s sobering to see the financial figures that #mediacoops in the US are raising vs anywhere else (except e.g. @taz.de)

www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/jour...

I’m not aware of any significant structured programmes that are looking to do that - please let me know here or at @mediacoops.bsky.social of any schemes or funders doing this in this domain.

Or if there are any schemes within the #cooperatives movement that have included #mediacoops….

3/n

It’s long felt to me that, given access to sustained financial & business support, the #mediacoops field in the UK & Europe has levels of growth within it, and can make a huge contribution to #journalism, media diversity, healthier information environments, especially locally.

2/n

I’ve followed #mediacoops in the UK & Europe for >10 years, from Dave Boyle’s Good News report, through the start of @thebristolcable.bsky.social & @theferret.scot, @mcrmeteor.bsky.social etc. There’s a rich history, research, lots of learnings (I’ve long tracked some @mediacoops.bsky.social)

1/n

Is working in #mediacoops utopian? A view from @niemanlab.org:

bsky.app/profile/niem...

Finally, finally @theboyler.bsky.social would be great to chat to too - he's advised and helped to set-up loads of the existing UK #mediacoops and also wrote this www.uk.coop/resources/go...

UK_Media_Co-ops.md United Diversity - Together We Have Everything

That's probably too much info already! But feel free to reach out if you'd like any more info about any of that.

Finally, here is my (likely no longer up to date) list of UK #mediacoops ud.coop/ukmediacoops - might be a good idea to have a chat with some of them too 🙂

HERE WE GO!

#mediacoops

Of relevance to #mediacoops in the UK…
Cc @theferret.scot @thebristolcable.bsky.social @mcrmeteor.bsky.social @newint.bsky.social et al

#mediacoops in the USA 👇🏾

bsky.app/profile/ryan...

Three weeks ago, after a long absence, I appeared on the BBC's Moral Maze, to discuss media power. I was shocked to discover how far things have gone. The Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley "argued" that the media can't be predominantly rightwing, because GB News says it has been "captured by the loony left". The rightwinger Inaya Folarin Iman called the idea that billionaires influence the media they own a "grand conspiracy" and "false consciousness". Such people are now so dominant that they no longer even have to make sense.

Power is the rock on which truth founders. It will always find willing enforcers: no one ever lost money by telling billionaires what they want to hear. The mainstream media, with a few exceptions, is a single-issue lobby group, whose purpose is to assert the rights of capital.

But perhaps the ground is shifting. Citizen journalism is flowering, through the Bylines network, openDemocracy, Double Down News , Novara, Declassified and DeSmog, and in particular at the local level. Most established local newspapers are a graveyard of good journalism. But they're being pushed aside by innovative new outlets, such as the Bristol Cable, Glasgow's Bell, View Digital in Belfast, Manchester's Mill, the Leicester Gazette, West Country Voices, Birmingham's Dispatch, the Oxford Clarion, the Hastings Independent, the Waltham Forest Echo, Inside Croydon, the Sheffield Tribune and the Liverpool Post.

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social reflecting on his career as a journalist, and finding hope in the local and independent media in the UK:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#localmedia #journalism #investigativejournalism #mediacoops

Bristol: A City of Solidarity - The Bristol Cable Across the nation, far-right anti-migrant narratives amplified by the heritage media are fuelling hatred and misinformation. In response, we centre this edition on migration—celebrating Bristol’s dive...

@thebristolcable.bsky.social’s latest edition:

“Across the nation, far-right anti-migrant narratives amplified by the heritage media are fuelling hatred and misinformation. (Ctd)”

thebristolcable.org/2025/08/bris...

#bristol #solidarity #cities #journalism #mediacoops #migration

Here’s my List of #mediacoops - let me know what I am missing:

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Hello media co-op friends! I'd love to know if you know of any current/contemporary guides or courses or advisory services, from any country or language, to setting up and running #mediacoops specifically. All pointers much appreciated...

#cooperatives

Fellow media co-op watchers and doers:

Is there any value to building a guide (that can be localised) on #mediacoops?

I’ve seen flurries of activity around this in the past, & I am sure the US has plenty of stuff on this, but for elsewhere around the world? Existing examples?

Our Funding Investigate Europe is a cross-border journalism cooperative with reporters in 12 countries, along with collaborators from across Europe.

Delighted to discover (or hopefully re-discover) that @investigate-eu.bsky.social is a "charitable, non-profit European Cooperative Society, owned by its team"...

www.investigate-europe.eu/funding

#mediacoops

Subvert — The Collectively Owned Music Marketplace A music platform owned by us all. Join Subvert to sell your work, support artists, and shape our shared future. Sincerely Ours.

Curious to see @subvert.fm how progresses as a co-operatively-owned alt to @bandcamp.com:

subvert.fm

#cooperatives #mediacoops #music

One of the rival bids for the #Observer has offered to give a stake in the business to staff. No word on whether @theguardian.com #ScottTrust will entertain the bid as would be usual.

Here @mazzucatom.bsky.social suggests @theguardian.com and #Observer practice stakeholder capitalism…

#mediacoops

(Sorry for the interruption in service on all things #mediacoops - more soon, I hope!)

#mediacoops #France

This is exciting as an initiative - long-mooted, now happening, it seems:

Medias-coop.org

Becoming a shareholder - Voxeurop As the first European press cooperative, Voxeurop is owned by its readers as well as its journalists, translators, partners and founders. The purpose of this project is to welcome all those who value ...

VoxEurop is “first European press cooperative, #Voxeurop is owned by its readers as well as its journalists, translators, partners and founders.”

voxeurop.eu/en/becoming-...

#mediacoops #europe

Good to see the @thebarentsobserver.com still going strong!

#mediacoops

The 2014 paper by @annamaris.bsky.social doesn’t seem to be online or accessible at @waybackmachine.bsky.social…

The media co-operative Fria Tidningar in #Sweden wound down pre-Covid, I think the last title shut down in 2019 or so, but the site remains:

www.fria.nu/omfria

#mediacoops

Linkrot means that the FADICCRA site is no longer active, but some stuff on #mediacoops in #Argentina remains here:

trabajocooperativo.com.ar/temas/fadicc...

And they’re definitely still operating:

cgcym.org.ar/cgcym-y-fadi...

This, written by Dave Boyle in 2012, was a landmark publication on how a media co-operative could work in the UK:

www.uk.coop/sites/defaul...

#mediacoops #journalism

Journal of Co-operative Studies Vol 54 No 4 Late Winter 2021 (Jan 2022) - No 163 Supplement - Constructing the co-operative imaginary: Journalism’s past, present, and emerging contributions

Paydirt for scholars or students of #mediacoops - here’s the Journal of #Cooperative Studies edition on #journalism and co-ops. Several #research articles on the history and present of co-ops in the news sector:

www.ukscs.coop/resources/jo...

Michale Fefes case study on Eksyntakton:

hubble-live-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uk-society-f...

#journalism #mediacoops #greece

United We Stand? External Obstacles, Internal Tensions and Degenerative Trends in a Greek Media Cooperative Drawing on qualitative analysis through semi-structured interviews this study focuses on Greece’s most longstanding media cooperative documenting the challenges it has encountered during the past d...

Efsyntakton, #Greece: “What keeps journalists of this specific outlet investing in the cooperative model is a unique sense of professional freedom & personal growth that they experience as members of a worker owned outlet.”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#mediacoops #journalism
#cooperatives

Theorizing “Co-operative Advantage” in News-Markets: Rethinking Media-Ownership, Renewing the Sociology of Journalism’s Radical Tradition, and Reframing Democratic Media Reform The sociology of journalism has traditionally neglected news co-operatives’ potential. This largely reflects the investor-owned news sector’s entrenched growth through most of the twentieth Century...

Here’s another academic article on “”Co-operative Advantage” in News-Markets” by Mitch Diamantopoulos:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#journalism #cooperatives #mediacoops