Starting a discussion
News&Market’s September 2011 launch was very tightly focused on the use of in-depth reporting to draw attention to issues related to land, agriculture, and food. During the two-plus years since its establishment, the company has seen in excess of 1 million visits to its website in a single month, and received 80,000 Facebook likes. The website has a high degree of “stickiness” for its readers, and has also become influential. In fact, its online reports on food safety issues, including its series on elementary school lunches, “rice-less” rice noodles, and the dangers of the drugs used to create leaner meats, have spawned similar stories in the mainstream media and influenced government policy.
News&Market’s Mandarin name (literally, “upstream/downstream, news, markets”) incorporates three concepts that offer insight into its mission.
The company intends “upstream/downstream” to suggest the relationship between the media and its readers, as well as between food producers and consumers. The “news” refers to offering top-quality news that serves as a communications medium fostering greater understanding between upstream and downstream, repairing the confidence lost as a result of food safety crises, and enabling action. The “market” part of the name is a reference to the site’s online market, which provides consumers with the means to buy healthy organic produce, and helps farmers stick to their ideals by providing them with a no-fuss means to distribute their produce.
The three ideas might seem an odd mix, but the website is so well designed that visitors grasp the connections immediately. News&Market places the news front and center and its market functions in a more secondary position. The news itself consists of in-depth reports by its three in-house writers and its editor, as well as articles by more than 600 freelance contributors. Since many of its freelancers are also small farmers, the numbers of articles posted on the site vary with the seasons.
“Most of the pieces by farmers focus on their land and their growing experience. Consequently, they produce loads of articles after harvest time and hardly any when they’re busy planting and tilling,” explains Ahon Shaw, one of the company’s founders and the person in charge of its website planning.
While most websites place ads along the sides of the page, News&Market fills those sidebars with pictures of small farmers’ produce, providing site visitors with links enabling them to purchase organic produce and NewsMarket’s own branded products. Homemakers currently comprise the bulk of the company’s customers, and make regular, frequent purchases. These sales provide the majority of the revenues necessary to keep News&Market running.
Ahon Shaw (second from right), one of News&Market’s founders, handles company operations. The company’s website seamlessly integrates with its brick-and-mortar outlet, which sells produce from small farmers.