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I started this project and my other one to help independent voices find the funding that keeps them independent.
I talk about revenue a lot but what I rarely talk about is why I think more of us need to become the independent media ventures we want to see. And why we all need to back them. Financially.
In 2019, I was knocking doors for now LA City Councilmember Nithya Ramen when I learned how many people in my neighborhood did not know that they were even physically in the city of Los Angeles. "LA City Council? I live in the valley! Not LA!" Beyond that, people truly did not give a shit about city council. Weird because they do seem to care a whole lot about Trump and those little equality signs in their front yards.
The disconnect was too much for me so I launched a newsletter: LA Pays Attention.
In it, I wrote real talk explainers of what city council, the mayor and the governor do—complete with hilarious graphics like this one (if I do say so myself).
Sign up for my free newsletter to take part in No Monopoly Media Week.
LA Pays Attention never got that big. At it's height, it was maybe 3k readers. But it did have some impact on how other media outlets do civic education. I got calls from the Editors in Chiefs of more than one notable California outlet. I got mentioned in the LA Times, CalMatters, and LAist. I got a feature on KCRW. I did a crosspost with The Appeal. And several journalists told me they found the straightforward style of my newsletter to be refreshing. Readers loved it too.
I didn't invent explainers, but I did notice that they became much more prevalent in local media post-LA Pays Attention, like this one on LA's police and these from LA Public Press, which bought LA Pays Attention, and has always seen the value in that type of service journalism from their inception.
I would never have guessed that I—a non-journalist with no real political background—could reach people in a way that would last. But I don't think we're just talking about politics or news.
I started my career in TV which was eaten by big tech soon after I left. Hollywood is completely risk averse now, only willing to produce Jurassic Park 75. Tech is rarely exposed for what they're actually up to. Open Netflix these days and see a bunch of formulaic documentaries that are borderline AI-generated. Are we going to let our entire media diet be fed to us by Jeff Bezos and Reed Hastings? THAT SOUNDS BORING.
What if...we write our own TV shows, make our own movies, run our own livestreams, build our own digital experiences, create our own games and distribute them ourselves? I know that's scary. It doesn't sound feasible. But it is. People are doing it. You can be one of them.
It's a no one is coming to save us moment. And I think PART of the answer to our current crises is building back up independent writing, podcasting, and video. Whether you're making a funny show about what it's like to be a parent in 2025 or reporting on ICE raids in your neighborhood, you're playing an important role in how we all see and navigate the world. Maybe, in the past, we could rely on institutions to offer that, but we can't anymore. It's on us now. And I believe we can do it. Or at least that we can DO SOMETHING.
That's why I do this work to help indie media businesses bring in their own revenue.
To get this (hopeful?) message out a little wider, I'm running what I call No Monopoly Media Week from August 18 to 22.
I'm going to release one post a day about how more of us can become part of the indie media movement. I hope it inspires you to find your own voice in this or to go bigger than you were thinking you would. Follow along on the newsletter.
If you like it, you can contribute to my summer reader raise to back this little project of mine. OR you can become a paid subscriber.
Both of those actions make this work possible and allow me to offer free and low cost support to more than 3000+ indie business owners chasing their own path in my audience.
Stay tuned in your inbox for a fresh post every day this week. You can expect stuff like "Should you become a media entrepreneur?" and "Don’t launch with monthly subscriptions."
By the end of this, you're gonna wanna join us one way or another.
