At Mondoweiss we are always striving to improve the news and analysis we provide our readers, and in comparison to the rest of American journalism, we believe we’re delivering.
But there is so much more we could do. If you value the perspective Mondoweiss offers, the insights you find nowhere else, it’s in your power to increase our output. If everyone who reads this contributes—whether $25 or $2,500—we can build our capacity.
Here’s what Mondoweiss contributors are investing in: what it takes to bring you the news the mainstream media fails to provide about Israel/Palestine.
Whether it’s IDF violence in Nablus, or power-mongering in the U.S., our responsibility as your eyes and ears is to convey the most complete information quickly and clearly, but most of all accurately. We highlight the voices of Palestinians, Israelis and people around the world whose viewpoints are often suppressed or distorted in the mainstream discussion.
Our commitment to thorough, accurate reporting and analysis requires concentrated editorial time and attention for every post. To accompany the words, we prepare photos and video—essential elements of modern journalism that require both technical skill and sophisticated technology. While other sites rely on large teams of editors, every piece of content published on Mondoweiss is reviewed by Phil or Adam personally. We are fortunate to have a great team of editors and writers in Annie, Allison and Alex, but we need to continue to grow to keep up with the overwhelming demand for trustworthy news from Israel/Palestine.
Meanwhile, alongside the daily writing and editing, we are constantly alert in other ways:
- Keeping an eye on the big picture politically, to ensure we’re following the right stories and giving the proper context.
- Managing day-to-day operations for the site, from paying freelancers, to moderating comments in our thriving discussion community to ensuring our web hosting remains fast and reliable even when traffic soars.
- Recruiting and evaluating new writers for Mondoweiss (Join us! Please be in touch with your ideas through submissions@mondoweiss.net).
- Assessing the needs of activists, policymakers and scholars as we consider Mondoweiss’s long-term strategy to increase our impact for social change.
That’s a glimpse at what it takes in labor, energy and effort to keep Mondoweiss delivering and growing. And here’s how your donations make all that happen.
For 2014, our expenses total about $250,000. Sixty percent of that budget was used to provide our editorial team with some livelihood: less than $160,000 for a staff of five. The remaining 40 percent was divided fairly evenly between:
- Web hosting and support;
- Payments to freelancers;
- Travel and equipment; and
- Fees for legal, financial and related services.
By comparison, consider the Israel and Palestine coverage of the New York Times. The Times has a greater commitment to covering the region than most corporate media, with more correspondents on the ground. Clearly, they devote lots of time to gathering and editing stories, and their video and design experts use the best software to make articles attractive and compelling. Their fact checkers no doubt have access to the best databases, and their reporters in Israel/Palestine rely on top-notch interpreters.
We estimate that the Times spends about $1 million annually on the ground for coverage of Israel/Palestine, with probably another half million for editing and infrastructure back in the States.
How’re they doing? On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you put the quality of their reporting? And how would you compare their results to what Mondoweiss produces, for a small fraction of the NYT budget?
Here’s how we see it:
If you agree that Mondoweiss plays a unique and necessary role, invest in our work. With your contribution, we can provide more regular updates on key struggles, and we can expand our reach to new audiences. We can document more of the injustices, more of the double-talk—and more of the growing movement for justice in Israel/Palestine!
Give today to sustain journalism that makes a difference.
You guys have always done a great job, by American standards, bringing Palestinian news to the American readers. Thank you earnestly for that.
But you’re losing wider readership and supporters because the news you’re reporting can be got elsewhere and for free; and you’ve also willingly neglected the needs of your blogging community – a community that was a huge attraction to the random reader for it’s steely and well-honed debating skills. Mondoweiss was exceptional and utterly unique in that sense.
Mondoweiss sprung into the spotlight initially for two reasons:
1- Phil Weiss confessional writing and his choice of independent writers, both jewish and non-jewish.
2- The eclectic, dynamic and sanguine bloggers who frequented MW’s threads and added inimitable waves of wit and wisdom to the Mondoweiss experience.
Now what you have – for the most part – are severely jew-centric articles that are of more interest to jewish readers than to anyone else. And hardly any articles by Palestinians themselves or other internationals appear in MW now to break the fishbowl perspective – like they used to before.
And you’ve severely neglected the needs of your blogging community, especially of late – seeing so very many brilliant bloggers abandon the sight for its lack of respect for blogger’s time (endless waiting in moderation), and lack of valuing their seasoned perspectives on the israel/Palestine crisis (decreasing freedoms of speech).
All for what? For a fancier typface? Cuz that’s all you’re gonna be left with unless you change course again.
My question to MW editors is this: why would serious bloggers donate money to a site that doesn’t respect or cater to their needs?
You give thanks to the many wonderful writers and random readers of MW but never give thanks to your blogging community – the very people who’ve invested hundreds of thousands of hours combined over the years to help propel MW to a recognized stage.
Mondoweiss began as a vision and now that vision is wearing an eye-patch.
Nobody is sadder than me to see this unfold.
Well said, Taxi. I just commented on this under the Glick article. My comment belongs here.
Don’t know what the redesign criteria were, but by doing so, the unique strengths of this site were ignored and destroyed.
It has become almost unreadable. And a disservice to itself.
It’s just Ellen, me and the crickets here…
Kinda demonstrates my point.
BUT……. I have to here thank the editors for bringing back the ‘edit’ function button TODAY.
That really does make a HUGE difference to the serious blogger. After all, we’re not texting a coupla lines here on MW, we’re penning paragraphed analysis and NOBODY wants to see their typos enshrined in archives for eternity.
So… I thank the editors, from the bottom of my weary pen, for re-instilling the ‘edit’ function again.
Merci beaucoup mon petit editores!
Except that these are not bombs, as claimed under the photo. Accurate reporting indeed.