About The Ferret
Scotland's award-winning online investigative journalism cooperative - independent, reader-owned and transparent. Join us.
The Ferret Description
Join The Ferret now and help build a better media: https://theferret. scot /subscribe /
Good, investigative journalism is suffering in Scotland. The advertising revenues that have traditionally funded journalists to uncover scandals are being swept away in the whirlwind of the electronic information revolution – and nobody is quite sure what to do about it.
We believe that something has to be done. In a democracy like ours few things are more important than a free, fair and independent media holding the powerful to account by discovering their secrets. Without serious, fact-based journalism in pursuit of the public interest and beholden to no-one, Scotland would be a smaller place.
That is why we are now proposing The Ferret: a new platform for investigative journalism unlike any that have gone before. It will not be owned by some distant corporation: it will be owned by its members and run as a not-for-profit operation in Scotland. It will not be aligned with any political party or any vested interest. It will be utterly transparent and totally accountable in all it does.
But The Ferret will not be dour. It will be challenging, irreverent, cheeky even. It will tap into the rich vein of Scottish journalism to produce good writing, exclusive, and must-read stories. And it will listen to its readers, who will all have a say in what it does.
There is still much detail to work out. We are open to suggestions on the best combination of grants, donations, subscriptions, crowdfunding, sales and other sources of income to help transform an important idea into a working reality. We welcome all thoughts on how we should be organised, and how members should be involved.
But this is the starting point. Scotland needs good, investigative journalism and the Ferret is our way of helping to ensure that. Let us know what you think and watch this space.
If you’d like to follow our progress, please become a supporter of The Ferret.