About All Around the News
All Around the News is an experiment in delivering the news. Our goals are to find answers to the following questions.
- Is it possible to have a successful news site that doesn’t waste bandwidth and time with stock photography? The site can’t become yet another news outlet that takes forever to load, clutters the page, and makes the news feel like the least important part of the site.
- Will readers spread good articles to social media without dozens of specialized buttons that automatically leak identity information to monopolies without a user’s explicit choice?
- What articles and writers warrant financial support, in the eyes of readers? Each news source that supplies a donation link receives a link on each of its articles. Articles from sources that have no donation process ask readers to donate here.
- What kinds of funding work best? Nobody likes advertisements, but it’s also an article of faith that it’s impossible to deliver the news—absent a billionaire funder, of course—without them. Over time, All Around the News will try different advertising schemes, solicit donations, sell branded merchandise, and so forth.
- Can a site so focused on ethics and sustainability succeed to the point where it can afford to commission articles?
- What does it take to acquire readers?
As the All Around the News team gathers data related to these questions, we’ll publish the results.
Who Are We?
All Around the News was created by the folks at Colagioia Industries, an independent software shop dedicated to asking the uncomfortable questions that need to be asked.
It's rare that we take on consulting jobs, but if you have projects that fit that description and need help, we might be interested in getting involved.
News Sources
Until All Around the News becomes self-sustainable, by being able to cover the costs of server fees and pay fairly for administrative services, we syndicate all articles from outlets that allow public re-use of their work for commercial purposes. In theory, this does mean that someone else could do the same. It also means that readers could visit our sources and ignore us completely.
We’re not afraid of that. In fact, we link to the original version of every article. If we can't provide a pleasant experience, we don’t deserve readers.
Of course, use of the source does not necessarily imply any endorsement of a particular article. If you see something easily debunked or otherwise dangerous, please drop a link to the article and credible, verifiable evidence (that is, some blog or a news source known for spreading disinformation does not count) in the Suggestion Box.