The Big Thaw

The Big Thaw is here!

Read our groundbreaking new study, The Big Thaw: Charting a New Future for Journalism. Buy a print copy of The Big Thaw in color or in B&W!

Welcome to the Media Consortium!

The Media Consortium is a network of the country’s leading independent journalism organizations. We support smart, powerful and passionate journalism that redefines American political and cultural debate. The Media Consortium is creating a solid cooperative infrastructure that will serve a 21st-century audience and offer a sustainable future for independent media. Millions of Americans are looking for honest, fair, and accurate journalism-We’re finding new ways to reach them. Our strategy has three focal points: Making Connections, Building Infrastructure, and Amplifying Our Voice.

Making Connections

Through meetings and collaboratively built projects, The Media Consortium enables our members to build relationships, strategize, and constructively work together to reinvent the independent media sphere.

Building Infrastructure

We’re analyzing who reads, watches and listens to our members’ work so that we can reach millions more Americans looking for honest journalism. We’re making joint investments in training, technology-sharing, advertising, promotions and learning how to communicate effectively with one another.

Amplifying Our Voice

It’s time to do together what we can not do alone. The Media Consortium seeks to fulfill the role of media in a democracy. We’re strengthening a vibrant, fact-based community of independent journalism producers that educate, inform and engage citizens to create the world to which we all aspire.

RSS Consortium Report

  • Weekly Mulch: What’s Missing from the New Clean Energy Agenda?
    By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger Nuclear power, biofuels, clean coal: These are the Obama administration’s answers to climate change. The 2011 budget, released this week, promised new loans for the construction of nuclear power plants, and on Wednesday the Environmental Protection Age...
  • Weekly Pulse: Who are Landrieu’s Alleged Phone Tamperers?
    By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium Blogger The four young men arrested last week for allegedly attempting to tamper with the phones at the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) have ties to Republican politicians, conservative think tanks, radical campus activists, and even the intelligence comm...
  • Weekly Audit: Don’t Let Citizens United Wreck Our Economy
    By Zach Carter, Media Consortium Blogger In a landmark decision last week, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could spend unlimited funds to influence American elections, overturning a century of legal precedent. The Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC undermines the integrity of t...
  • The Big Thaw: Index
    The Big Thaw is a “box set” with three volumes that can be used separately. Click here to download a volume of this report, or use the below index to read excerpts from each volume. Welcome to The Big Thaw An introduction to The Big Thaw from Media Consortium project director Tracy Van Slyke. Vo...
  • Conclusion: The American Way
    “We’re watching hundred of billions of [bailout] dollars being spent unaccountably to support supposedly our ‘American way.’ I think at some point we have to ask whether or not the ‘American way’ includes journalism.” – John Battelle Do Americans view journalism as a public good th...
  • Weekly Mulch: Climate Change On Obama’s Back Burner
    By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger In his first State of the Union address, President Barack Obama touched on climate issues only briefly. He called on the Senate to pass a climate bill, but did not give Congress a deadline or promise to veto weak legislation. Nor did he mention the Copenhage...
  • Creating a greater distribution of value
    Successful business models hinge their ability to measure value. “A well-measured medium is a more valuable medium” according to Nielsen Media Research’s website. As more reliable and commonly accepted metrics emerge to measure content performance, the more that organizations can estimate the ...
  • New Value Chain of Journalism
    While media organizations are trying many different revenue models, the models that succeed in the long run will find a place in a new value chain of journalism. A “value chain” is a chain of activities, in which each activity adds value to a product or service. The financial success of any busi...
  • Weekly Pulse: Did Wiretappers Target Landrieu Over Health Care Deal?
    By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium Blogger The conservative videographer who donned a pimp suit to embarrass the anti-poverty group ACORN was arrested in New Orleans, LA for allegedly conspiring to bug the office of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu. It’s not clear why Landrieu was targeted, ...
  • Weekly Audit: Just Who is Obama fighting for?
    By Zach Carter, Media Consortium Blogger Progressives have waited a year for President Barack Obama to roll up his sleeves and fight for serious financial reform. Last week, he finally jumped in the ring, telling weak-kneed Senators to stand up to Wall Street and endorsing a critical ban on risky se...

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