Thanks so much to all of you who’ve already supported our crowdfunding campaign, raising the money that we need to design and distribute our latest New Internationalist digital service – the Apple iOS App for iPad and iPhone.
At the time I write this we’re within striking distance of the first goal in the campaign, which is to reach our tipping point of $7,000. Just 15 pledges of $50 (or one donation of $700!) would get us over this all-important tipping point hurdle.
Help us reach the tipping point
If you’re not familiar with the tipping point concept in crowd funding, here it is in a nutshell:
- If we don’t succeed in getting pledges totalling $7,000 (one quarter of our campaign target), then all the pledges we’ve received so far will be cancelled and we’ll receive zilch.
- If we do get at least $7,000, the pledges are activated and we get on with the project, confident that we’ll able to gather sufficient support to complete it.
Some supporters have asked for more details about the campaign, so maybe a Q&A might be useful for you. When you’re ready, please do support the crowdfunding campaign.
Q: Why does the StartSomeGood site only work with PayPal pledges?
A: PayPal provides the best solution for pledges involving a tipping point, whereby the donations are not activated until the tipping point is reached.
If you don’t have a PayPal account (or don’t wish to create one) you can donate to the campaign using Visa or Mastercard at our online shop instead.
Q: Is $7,000 all you need?
A: No. For the complete project we need $28,000. But $7,000 will get us started. Another 400 pledges at $50 each would get us very close to the target. One generous supporter has given $1,000. But we’re equally grateful for every contribution. It all helps get the project happening.
Q: You’re an award-winning international magazine. Why do you need crowd funding?
A: There’s a huge time-lag between developing the new digital publishing platforms and actually earning significant income from them. We’re an independent not-for-profit cooperative, so unlike commercial media moguls we don’t have large reserves of cash for that kind of investment. But it’s critically important for democracy and for the global justice movement that independent media is well represented in the range of digital outlets being used by the next generation of citizens and decision-makers.
Q: This campaign is for Apple iPad and iPhone Apps. What about Android users?
More of our readers use Apple devices than Android to read our publications, so it’s logical for us to build the iPad and iPhone Apps first. Also iPads are in very heavy use in education, so it’s very important for us to provide tools there too.
But as soon as we’ve built and launched the iPad and iPhone Apps, we’ll move on to designing Apps for Android users, so your support for this campaign will speed us on our way with the entire program.
Q: You already have a digital subscription service. Why do you need to build the App?
Our existing http://digital.newint.com.au digital subscription service works beautifully on any device with an internet-connected browser, no matter whether Android, Apple, Kindle or whatever. But the limitation is that you need to be online to read anything.
The advantage of a device-specific App will be that:
- The content is downloaded when you’re in a Wi-Fi zone and then you can read the New Internationalist magazine anywhere, without maxing out your 3G or 4G download allowance, and even if you’re out of range of the internet.
- Once your subscription details are registered in the App you never have to put in login details again.
- Subscription payments can then be made as easily as any other App purchase.
Q: How do I know you’ll build quality Apps with this project?
Simon and Pix developed our digital subscription service in-house and you can see for yourself the fine quality of their work on that project. They’ve now made a start on developing the iPad and iPhone App. Simon is a Director of New Internationalist Publications Pty Ltd and has a long history of designing leading-edge digital products for us and for our counterparts internationally: our website, fair trade shop, blog, eNewsletters, eBooks, CD-ROMs and DVDs.