Phoenix Media Co-operative launched at the start of 2021. Our focus was to build a radically democratic structure that challenged the top-down model of most media outlets. During our membership of the Independent Media Association, we were co-winners of “International Reporting of the Year” at the Independent Media Awards of March 2022.
Due to a lack of funds, we are making the shift in late 2023 from an officially registered and regulated organisation to an informal blog. This will continue to showcase the work we produced from 2021 to 2023, and will occasionally feature short summaries of stories to watch out for in international politics.
The co-op was never about using personal popularity to make money, boost profiles, or set up book-writing contracts. It was about the collective spirit of resistance; a movement for permanent collective power – not for a temporary achievement of compromises or crumbs of justice. There can be no lasting peace until there is full justice. Our enemies play dirty and have the strength and resources to keep us constantly on our feet; but we’ll learn, adapt, and keep fighting for collective consciousness and real, meaningful democracy.
We still desperately need radical, worker-owned media!
The richest 1% now owns almost half of all our planet’s wealth, and we’re staring a climate catastrophe in the face. But the corporate media only serves to uphold this status quo, when the world urgently needs change.
We want a radically different present and future that’s based on justice, equality, freedom, and sustainability for humanity and the planet.
As a co-op, we always sought to provide bold, accurate, accessible journalism which was unashamedly internationalist and subversive. To help build a new world, we believed in trying to revolutionise the media by:
- functioning as a radically democratic workplace owned equally by all its worker-members, who made decisions together with no bosses;
- amplifying the voices of people who are socially excluded, marginalised or oppressed, and of people who are resisting and organising (via workers’ movements and co-operatives, for example);
- firmly opposing the concentration of power in the hands of a privileged few in politics, the economy, and the media;
- resisting self-interested wars of aggression waged by imperialist powers and their corporate allies.
Our co-operative mission
Our journalism was like our organisation: innovative, principled, trustworthy, and democratic. We always sought to act with integrity, showing commitment to accuracy and accountability.
We believed in media democratisation, which is key to forging truly democratic politics and economies. And by creating a work structure where all our members have the same amount of power, we wanted to show that actions are just as important as words.
We also saw the importance of joining forces and collaborating with others. One big example of this was our What’s Happening newsletter collaboration with Real Media co-operative.
We sought to facilitate learning, facilitate the development of consciousness, and facilitate organisation, resistance and unity.
We weren’t just a media outlet, but a mission.
The team
We were a diverse group of people from around the UK and the world and, unlike many other media outlets, were not London-based.
Many of the founding worker-members were former employees of The Canary, or connected in some way to that innovative organisation. The Canary did not have a democratic model until 2022, however, and three editor-writers were controversially pushed out via redundancy during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. These employees became co-founders of Phoenix Media Co-operative in 2021 along with other worker-member co-founders.
Unfortunately, Phoenix Media Co-operative worker-members were always volunteers. There were never any salaries. (If you are able to contribute to the ongoing upkeep of the website, please do support us.)
If you wish to contact us, please write to PhoenixMediaCooperative[at]pm[dot]me
We hold out hope that we will come back to life again in the future. The world desperately needs media democracy. No more millionaires controlling the press, no more bosses controlling what’s covered and what’s not, no more selling out to advertisers, and no more of the elitist bias this messed-up system usually generates. There must be full worker control of our press if we really want to democratise the way we get our information. Worker-members need to have equal power – to stand and fall together.
If you can chip in, you’ll help to: amplify the voices of marginalised, exploited and oppressed people; fund the kind of justice-focused digging and analysis that establishment media outlets refuse to do; and keep our website free from the annoying corporate adverts that appear elsewhere.
Complaints?
We always aimed to be thorough and to avoid publishing inaccurate information. But if we ever did make a mistake, we’ll admit it, correct it and learn from it. That’s why we were happy to be accountable to the independent press regulator IMPRESS from 2021 to 2023.
We can look into complaints about items we have published which are in our control. We are no longer regulated by IMPRESS but still adhere to the Standards Code adopted by IMPRESS and when possible will deal with complaints which relate to an alleged breach of the standards set out in this Code.
We can only deal with your complaint if you are:
- personally and directly affected by an alleged breach of the Code
- a representative group affected by an alleged breach of the Code, where there is public interest in your complaint
- a third party seeking to ensure accuracy of published information
Complaints must be made to Phoenix Media Co-operative in writing to PhoenixMediaCooperative[at]pm[dot]me . We’ll aim to deal quickly and fairly with all complaints, and make corrections where appropriate. In your email, please express as briefly as possible what you believe the issue to be and what you would like us to do in response. Also, please clearly mark your message as a complaint. Please include your name, address, e-mail address and telephone number.
If the complaint is about an article, please include:
- the name and date of the publication, plus the URL.
- URL/Link to any visual or audio element of the complaint.
- a clear reference to (i) any specific words or phrases in the article that are relevant to the complaint; and (ii) any clauses of the Standards Code adopted by IMPRESS (“Code”) that the complainant believes to have been breached
- The desired outcome or remedy sought by the complainant
If the complaint is about a co-op member or contributor, please include:
- the name(s) of the individual(s) being complained about (if known) or any other information which may identify the individual (s)
- a written account of what is being complained about with clear reference made to (i) the nature of the behaviour or conduct being complained about including any relevant times, dates, correspondence or other evidence to support the complaint; and (ii) any clauses of the Code that the complainant believes to have been breached
- The desired outcome or remedy sought by the complainant
We will aim to acknowledge your complaint by e-mail within 60 calendar days and will normally respond to your compliant with a final decision letter within 70 calendar days. If we uphold your complaint, we will tell you the remedial actions we have taken.
Phoenix Media Co-operative 