NewsWrights United held its first ever awareness/fundraising event, Journalism: a.WAKE.ning? this past Monday night. After taking a few days to recover, I thought it was high time to take a look at how we did.
Goal 1: Raising Awareness
The Excerpt Reading
The evening’s kick off entertainment came with Dawson Nichols’ staging of the first scene of our working script for upcoming second edition of our Living Newspaper: The New New News, featuring the inestimable talents of Robert Agostinelli, Shawn Belyea, Khanh Doan, Amy Love, Joseph P. McCarthy, and our own Wes Andrews. It is rollercoaster fun for a playwright to watch talented professional actors read, after very little rehearsal, words one collaborated to wright. One moment you stand horrified helpless witness as they mangle laugh lines you crafted and treasured so dearly; the next moment thrill blossoms again as they find whole new laughs you never expected or designed. Shawn Belyea embodied the definition of a professional actor– versus, say, a very talented and eager amateur– when he managed to wring the biggest laugh of the night out of losing his place in the script.
The Panel Discussion
Our Consulting Producer, Tom Paulson, ran this discussion of the current state of journalism, with such local luminaries as legendary sports columnist Art Thiel, new media maven, Monica Guzman, Mark Higgins, Metro Editor for The Seattle Times, Brendan Kiley, Theater Critic and Features Reporter for The Stranger, and Chris Grygiel, coordinator of political coverage for the Seattle P-I.com. Personally, I found this panel discussion the most exciting portion of the evening. Tom pointed hard-hitting questions at everyone in the room, and not one of the panelists shied away from answering frankly, a rare occurrence, as you would know if you have attended similar discussions in the last couple years. Journalists have been very leery about hashing through the woes of their industry. For a quick rundown of the various points-of-view represent, I cannot do better than the rundown provided by Jake Ellison over at Seattlepostglobe.org, which you can check out by clicking here.
One moment seemed to leap out for nearly everyone in the room. Several good friends gave me their feedback in the days after and nearly all of them specifically mentioned the earnest and well-argued exchange between Art Thiel and Brendan Kiley regarding the definition of a journalist. Is it, as Art argued, an expert in a certain field or, per Brendan, an aggressive novice? One friend clearly felt Brendan played the wrong-headed asshole in the debate; the other friend, however, remarked on how freaked out he was by what he viewed as Art’s vehement defensiveness. To a playwright this sounds like magic. When you can produce something on stage from which different audience members can draw diametrically opposed notions of who the villain was, then you are most definitely cooking with gas.
GRADE FOR AWARNESS RAISING – 95% – “A”
Goal 2: Raising Funds
Of course, the second and co-equal goal for Journalism: a.WAKE.ning? was to raise additional funds for our upcoming second edition: The New New News: A Living Newspaper. We did that, posting a considerable surplus for the evening, but we could have done it better. We are a new organization and still learning out how to do the all things we need to do to survive and thrive. We will get better at this.
GRADE FOR FUND RAISING – 82.7% – “B-minus”
And now to you . . .
Because we continue reaching for our support goals, I would like to ask you right now to consider joining the NewsWrights team as a supporting member. We have a wide spectrum of levels at which you can join. I ask you to consider coming on as at least a “Cub Reporter” for a donation of $25. 
At the $50 level you will be listed in our program as a “Columnist” and in recognition of your generosity, you will receive, while supplies last, a limited edition Seattle P-I ball cap just like the one you see Artistic Producer Dawson Nichols smartly modeling in the photo to the right.
At the “Desk Editor” level, representing a $100 gift, you will receive two hats, plus two reserved seats to any performance including one of our three opening nights, as we deliver the paper to Seattle’s doorstep in three neighborhoods: West Seattle, Capitol Hill and Northgate.
At the $1,000 “Media Mogul” level you will receive all of those perks, plus coverage of any local story you want by NewsWrights United, because we, like certain cable TV news operations, can clearly be bought.
Finally, if all you can spare is $10, we would be deeply grateful to have you join our team as a “Newsie”.
The bottom line is we want your support– any support– because your support represents your “buy-in” to our mission, and that keeps us strong both fiscally and spiritually. So please consider joining us at whatever level you can. It’s as easy as clicking on our trusty upside-down NewsWrights Support Fedora, below. It will take you to our Shunpike donation page.
Thank you so much for filling our hat with your support!
(Also, if you have not already done so, please consider “liking” our Face Book page here. For now, it is the very best way to keep track of our doings and some very evocative discussions around current journalism issues. )
