The short version:

The Buffalo Hive is a nonprofit online journalism organization dedicated to covering Western New York arts and culture communities by providing thorough, independent reporting and the most inclusive, comprehensive event calendar possible.

The long version (a manifesto of sorts):

The Buffalo Hive is filling a gap left by the abandonment of the arts and culture spheres of life in Western New York by The Buffalo News and the disappearance of the alternative weekly publications.

We know that doing things the same way they’ve always been done isn’t going to work. Instead we’re approaching this as an opportunity to work with evolving technology rather than being acted on by it.

Every organization has to do at least one of two things: provide a solution to a problem or provide some kind of reward to its audience. The Buffalo Hive will do both.

@thebuffalohive

How many times have you said, “Why didn’t I know about that?” If you’re in Buffalo and WNY, you know you need ONE place where you can find out about everything that’s happening in arts and culture, from an inclusive calendar to smart, independent stories to let you know aboutwhat cool stuff is happening. Luckily, The Buffalo Hive is on the way! Buffalo, WNY, arts, culture, music, theatre, film, literature, visualartsdance

♬ Enjoy Your Life – Mas Rizky Iman

The biggest problem we’re solving is, as our initial promo video phrased it, the problem of “why didn’t I know about that?”

There are several online calendars in the region, and some of them are very good. But none of them cross the borders between all kinds of arts and culture, from big arena concerts all the way to small town art show or Lenten fish fries.

The reward that we’re providing is in offering well-written, independent JOURNALISM about what is happening in the cultural life of our community. We’re not a marketing company that does “pay for play” or simply reposts PR releases. We will pay journalists to report on what they see and hear.

Our primary allegiance is THE AUDIENCE. While there will be plenty of sponsorship opportunities on our site, sponsorhip will not be linked to coverage. To be a valid journalistic entity, those have to be separate, and they will be.

While we’re dedicated to bedrock journalistic ethics, we will also be pioneering a new community approach to journalism in Western New York.

We will be AVAILABLE to the audience and engaged with it. We plan to have meetups and gatherings that are open to the public and where they can tell us what we’re getting right and, especially important, what we may not be getting right. The public will have the option of helping out or pitching in.

We will be actively reaching out to what have traditionally been underserved communities for both their stories and for journalists. Part of our mission is to train a new generation of journalists, especially from those communities, so they can tell their own stories.

Our financial model will start with a small (two people) paid staff, which will eventually grow as The Buffalo Hive develops. But we’re also planning to rely on a corps of paid freelancers who bring specific knowledge and expertise about their coverage areas. This will cost money, and we’ll have to raise it!

Our business model is built on a combination of models, but falls closest to public media (think NPR and PBS stations). We will be offering memberships to individuals, we will offer sponsorship opportunities, we will conduct events to both raise money and to engage with the community, and we will be seeking grants and other private and public support.

That’s a lot to take on, but we’re ready to get started. This is going to be fun.

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One of the things we did early on in the process of creating The Buffalo Hive was to come up with statement of our values. Here they are:  

• We believe that the arts and culture of Western New York are what makes our region unique, and that they deserve the same level of coverage as government, the legal and justice systems and local business. 
• We believe that writers, photographers and artists should be paid for their work. 
• We believe that great journalism is collaborative and that copy editing and all kinds of editing are crucial to doing it right. 
• We believe that collaboration and cooperation between nonprofits, arts groups, cultural groups and other entities are essential for our region to prosper. 
• We believe transparency is essential to journalistic integrity. Readers and viewers should know where their information is coming from and the perspective those sources may represent.
• We believe in offering training and opportunity for the next generations of journalists and citizens.