The Next Chapter For Civil

Lessons learned, and turning the page

Civil sits at the intersection of two major trends: 1) decentralized economies powered by blockchain, and 2) quality journalism and civil discourse in an era of unprecedented division. Both are volatile and face adversaries who wish to hamper their growth and sustainability. Both are vital to a more open, trustworthy and transformative society tomorrow and beyond.

In other words, our journey is just beginning.

In the days following our failed token sale, I met with every member of the Civil team, our newsrooms, partners, community members and close advisors, to understand what we needed to learn, what we needed to change, and critically, what we needed to hold onto.

The takeaway was resounding: we need to renew our focus on journalism.

Civil was never about ICOs and tokens, or even blockchain. We’re about community-ownership, transparency and trust. We believe journalism (and media at large) should compete on craft, but collaborate on infrastructure. Technology is a critical means to an end, but we let it overwhelm our message, complicate our experience, and distract from our core objectives. We won’t make that mistake again.

So we rebuilt our plans from the ground up. We are more focused, and it’s in no small part thanks to the encouraging and constructive feedback we receive from our community everyday. Thank you for all the support.

Let’s get back to basics.

Civil is a decentralized network of independent newsrooms, a community-run journalism project supported by the Civil Foundation and based on a token-curated registry model. Tokens provide members with a say and share in the project’s day-to-day operations and long-term evolution. The mission is to advance trust and sustainability for journalism worldwide. 
 
With that, I’m excited to share that Civil will launch in early February. Here’s what to expect:

1. The Civil Registry will go live. This app is the core of our decentralized network of newsrooms, and how our community-run project will actually work. This means any newsroom will be able to apply to be a Civil newsroom, and the community will govern itself according to our living set of journalistic standards, known as the Civil Constitution.
2. The Civil Publisher will also go live. This tool allows Civil newsrooms to index verifiable data about their articles to the blockchain, or even permanently archive all their work. Right now, it’s only available for newsrooms using WordPress, but we plan to open this up to other publishing systems soon. (Watch Popula’s Maria Bustillos make history as the first known publication to permanently archive a full news article to the blockchain, thanks to Civil technology.)
3. We’ll start selling CVL tokens. Unlike last time, there will be no hard cap, no soft cap, or time limits. Instead, interested members of the public will just buy tokens right from our website, civil.co. Our tokens will stay on sale on a continuous basis until we sellout of the 34MM public allocation. (Yes, we even tried to make the experience a bit easier too!) All net proceeds will go to the Civil Foundation to fund public-service journalism efforts around the world.

Our team has been working on these products and supporting infrastructure for almost a year, and I couldn’t be more proud of the tireless effort, tremendous resilience and pioneering spirit my colleagues exhibit everyday. For more details on what we’ve built, what we’ll launch when, and how you can try Civil for yourself, read the new post from Chief Product Officer Mike Young, The Civil Product Roadmap: Where We’re Heading in 2019.
 
We have also been drafting the Civil Constitution with ongoing community feedback over the past several months, including from dozens of leading media minds in New York, Washington D.C., Toronto, London and Hong Kong. For more details on the inaugural Civil Constitution, our methodology and sticking points, and where we go from here, read the new post from Civil Foundation CEO Vivian Schiller, The Evolution of the Civil Constitution.
 
Currently, Civil counts 18 newsrooms among its ranks with a total readership near 10MM people, and more than 50 additional newsrooms are preparing to join for our February launch. The Civil Foundation is charged with community-building, and their ambitious goal is 1,000 small to midsize newsrooms onboard worldwide by 2020.
 
Newsrooms that join Civil receive white-glove support from the Civil Foundation including community access, third-party vendor benefits, expert consulting support, and a modest token issuance to get started. If you’re a newsroom drawn to our mission and benefits, we hope you’ll signup to learn more.