YOU Can Bring Back Keghart

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October 11, 2016

Dear Keghart reader,

The profusion of comments to Keghart's Adieu indicates that the adieu is not accepted.  We all profoundly thank Dr. Abrahamian and his team including Messrs. Tutunjian and Kojayan.  But unlike what happened to other independent media in our diaspora, this time something different will happen.  This time, we the readers, will come together to save and maintain Keghart into the future.

For Keghart to function properly, it requires recruitment of and salary for an experienced, knowledgeable editor/publisher person or pair.  Based on extensive consultations, the yearly cost of running Keghart would be US $60,000, the main portion of which will be the salary of the new editor/publisher, the rest covering Internet costs.

October 11, 2016

Dear Keghart reader,

The profusion of comments to Keghart's Adieu indicates that the adieu is not accepted.  We all profoundly thank Dr. Abrahamian and his team including Messrs. Tutunjian and Kojayan.  But unlike what happened to other independent media in our diaspora, this time something different will happen.  This time, we the readers, will come together to save and maintain Keghart into the future.

For Keghart to function properly, it requires recruitment of and salary for an experienced, knowledgeable editor/publisher person or pair.  Based on extensive consultations, the yearly cost of running Keghart would be US $60,000, the main portion of which will be the salary of the new editor/publisher, the rest covering Internet costs.

As has been indicated, we, a group of readers interested in Keghart's future fully realize that there is much more to running Keghart than finances and salaries.  As such, we will strike a committee of individuals in consultation with Dr. Abrahamian to  serve as Keghart's board. This board, including Dr. Abrahamian, will carefully search for and recruit the new paid editor/publisher.

We believe that while it is possible to identify a few deep pocket donors to take care of the costs, this would run counter to the guiding principle of Keghart, namely its independence.  Instead, we wish to crowd-fund Keghart through its readership.  Small-amount donations from a large number of readers will ensure the requisite financial health of Keghart down the years.  Therefore, prior to embarking on next steps of forming the Keghart board and searching for the new editor/publisher, we are sending this call out to see whether enough Keghart readers really wish this to happen.  In theory, if every Keghart reader commits even $10, the costs would be covered.  However, our expectation is that a minority of readers will react to this call.  Therefore, you, the interested reader, should be thinking more in the $100 or the $1000 range.  However, PLEASE, if you can afford or are only willing to contribute less and want to do your part at the $10 level, PLEASE DO SO. 

We kindly ask each and every one of you to consider this request and write me, Dr. Berge Minassian, at  [email protected]  and simply tell me whether you are willing to participate and at what level ($10, $100, $1000 or slightly more, but not much more please). The minimum commitment will be for 1 year.  Those who wish to commit to more than one year are welcome and encouraged to do so.  Once the funding for the first year is assured, the new editor/publisher is in place and the ball is rolling, we will work with you all to secure funding down the years, including ongoing yearly contributions, advertisements in Keghart (potentially), fundraisers through sales of Keghart articles such as books, etc.  

Once we hear back from you, we will publicize the data (without names of course), and determine whether there is enough real interest in saving Keghart.  Again, please remember that only a portion of Keghart readers are likely to respond to this call and therefore please aim high if you can.

Let us save the gem that is Keghart with the above unified and relatively painless effort for each of us who value Keghart.  Let us also remember that if we do not do this, when we later ask how come there are no independent Armenian media, we will know the answer.

I await your email, with fraternal thanks,

Berge A. Minassian MD

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5 comments

  1. Timely and constructive initiative

    Timely and constructive initiative. Keep the independent media alive. I pledge  C$ 2000.00 and my adult children Manoush and Ara C$ 1,500.00 each for a total of C$ 5000.00 towards Keghart fund. Good luck.

    Sahag

  2. Keghart Crowdfunding

    Please, stop the Keghart croudfunding / Fundraising ….

    Editing and publishing of Keghart should be ONLY on a voluntary basis, like so far.

    Nora Ulrich

    1. I agree

      I totally agree with you Nora. This website is a unique one that was the result of a special effort by its founder Dr. Abrahamian. If we leave it in the hands of many, then it will loose its niche and will be transformed into a totally different website without an identity and ideology.

      Also it's very hard to find a single person to manage the site and perform the same tasks as Dikran was doing. His efforts, combined with his team created the uniqueness of the site that people loved and kept coming back.  Without that same effort and dedication the site will become like any other website, filled with Ads and conflicting articles as other Armenian sites are doing.

      Funding will not help, finding the right person will.

  3. Salaried Editor/s

    Thomas Friedman, the eminent columnist of NY Times, once wrote that he has the dream job. He is paid well by the paper and has complete editorial autonomy to write and comment on matters.

    It is the understatement of Keghart.com I make when I note that Dikran and Jirair  also had a complete editorial autonomy that became the hallmark of Keghart.com. Over the years many vehemently opposed to some of the editorials and even the editor/s for espousing it but Keghart.com continued on its course for nine years.  A readership financed Armenian Diaspora paper might long survive carrying on the mission Keghart.com espoused. After all, will this year’s financial contributor be next year’s as well should he or she disagree with the editor even for a single editorial?

    I support Berge in his endeavor but not his quest for salaried editor/s.  I propose that those interested share their views as to how best to maintain and continue Keghart.com carry on its mission and subsequently have a face-to-face meeting to cap things.

  4. Post Dikran & Jirair Keghart.com

    As a matter of principle, I do not ascribe to any notion of an “independent” forum. Each and every one of us has his or her food for thoughts, some share and some do not. Surely Dikran and Jirair had some ideological bearings I did not embrace wholeheartedly but those were not reasons for me not to feel a strong kinship with them and not only appreciate what they did  but also commend their devotion to all things Armenian.  Berge’s financial analysis sheds some light on the fraction of the cost in almighty $$ their contributions meant in the 21st-century  to Armenian journalism.

    It is this that I envision Keghart.com to continue being the embodiment of its founder.  A forum of original articles, stories, first-time translations of Armenian articles “devoted to community activities, human rights, and democracy”. A group of volunteers, constituting the editorial board will simply review these articles to assure that they do not contain vile language, incite hate and intolerance and post them on Keghart.com and distribute. Naturally, all views expressed in Keghart.com will continue to be those of respective authors and no others. 

     

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