Earlier I read about this and LOVED the idea. Now I’ve read the Society’s website. It’s the Media Collective.
The info on the site matches what I read before, and also clarifies the revenue method.
What I read before:
Health insurance: Monthly stipend and concierge service with our network of insurance partners.
Legal support: Pre-publication review, legal support, Errors and Omissions coverage.
(Especially crucial for real reporters, if any exist.)
Business helper software: Perplexity Pro and Getty Images to bolster your editorial work. Doola to shoulder the weight of accounting and business management.
Marketing assistance: Dashboards, insights, and automations to build a clear, in-depth, real-time understanding of your readers.
The revenue is exactly like real MBS and exactly unlike social media. Real lodges and unions charged members monthly dues, but didn’t take a percentage of their income. An Odd Fellow didn’t work out of the lodge hall and didn’t show the lodge insignia on his business. Members simply ran their own businesses or worked for others, while getting the benefits in return for the dues.
Social platforms pretend to be “free” so you can pretend to be a billionaire; but they siphon off part of your revenue from using the platform, or use your attention as the product for advertisers.
Pay for Value is the ONLY honest form of business. When you pay directly you can expect results. When you aren’t paying a flat amount for service, somebody else is paying, and somebody else expects results from exploiting you.
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Later: Beehiiv is a great idea, but it isn’t producing any actual results so far. I ran through some reddit threads listing currently active beehiiv publications, and they’re all stock traders and bitcoin traders pushing new scams. Nothing resembling news, let alone objective news. The redditors were also complaining that beehiiv is hard to use from the writer side, with much worse UI/UX than other platforms. I’m starting to think that Beehiiv itself is just an IPO scam to bring in venture capitalist cash then pull the rug.
Polistra's Mill 