Saad Ullah
Newspack from WordPress
The new platform will be called Newspack and will be aimed to offer technical support to small and medium level news organizations. The platform will have blockchain based features, thanks to Consensys. Specifically, the options of blockchain based technology will come from Civil, a Consensys backed journalism platform.
Civil’s Publisher allows news organizations to save their archives on the blockchain. This means that any news saved their will have multiple copies (thanks to decentralization) and permanently recorded (thanks to blockchain). The Publisher will be installed into the main WordPress platform as a plugin, allowing any and all news publishing portals to use the power of blockchain to save their data.
Heavy Backing
The new platform by WordPress has seen some significant backing from a multitude of interested parties and partners. This includes Google’s USD 1.2 million and Consensys pitching in USD 350,000. Journalism based organizations, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation committed USD 250,000, while the Lenfest Institute for Journalism backed USD 400,000.
The Plugin is also being designed so that it is not only user friendly, but allows for first time portals to get registered on the Civil network with ease. A representative of Consensys, speaking on behalf of Civil, said, “The plugin will also act as a portal that will walk newsrooms through how to join the Civil Registry, the hub of community-vetted and -approved newsrooms.”
Civil, the blockchain based journalism platform, has a sound concept, allowing for permanent and immutable storage of news on blockchain. Even though the platform failed to raise funds through its token offering past its soft cap, the platform has seen backing from some major players. It has assisted in archiving the complete data of a news portal during the end of 2018, while securing a collaboration with Associated Press during August last year.
Saad Ullah
