What Rabobank can do, we can do too, thought the journalists of the Cultural Press Agency: working together in a cooperative association. In June, the new form for the news agency will become a reality. This will increase our clout and boost our innovative capacity.
Stichting Het Cultureel Persbureau was given time and money by the Ministry of OC&W in 2010 and 2011 to prove that a specialised press agency can meet a need and also be able to keep its own trousers on. We have since demonstrated that it can. So it is time to modernise the organisation.
Until now, we were a foundation. That was convenient to be able to act decisively in a short time, but when we were founded, it was already clear that a more modern organisational form would eventually be needed. The Cultural Press Agency will therefore become a 'Cooperative Association U.A.', with the name 'Culture Press', to do more justice to the name that have with our more than 6,000 followers on twitter. The website, facebook and twitter accounts will be maintained, but will gradually be adapted to the new situation.
The changing media and arts landscape requires a new approach to journalism. Traditional relationships are no longer universally valid: traditionally operating publishing houses continue to see their revenues and print runs decline, while fresh startups on the internet are increasingly able to develop revenue models. Leading concept here is: 'sharing'. Not the website is sacred as a place where you earn your money (e.g. with a paywall or banner ads). What we already knew in 2009, and have since successfully worked out: you make your money where the interest is. And that is rarely in the newsroom, but always where the reader, viewer, creator and user are.
For the individual freelance art journalist, this has only made the position even more vulnerable than in the oue situation: you encounter more and more competitors, and the pool gets thinner. "For you ten others" is increasingly the argument 'clients' use to put you under pressure.
For us, the Cultural Press Cooperative is the equally simple and powerful answer to this. Because those ten others, that client was talking about, so now they are in the cooperative together. Instead of a passive and waiting contractor, we have become a cooperation partner. And that cooperation increasingly takes place outside traditional structures: in addition to media publishers, we cooperate with cultural organisations, companies with artistic ambitions, or ordinary subscribers of applications we are still devising. Because joint enterprise also involves joint development. We expect commitment from our members in every conceivable area.
Interested people and companies who want to know how they can contribute to this revolutionary concept, based on an ancient form of organisation, can always contact us with questions at vereniging@cultureelpersbureau.nl
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