Who is 44 Cows Communications?

Who Are We?

    44 Cows Communications was started by a group of people who saw a need for a change in the news, and how it is conveyed to the people of the world.

What Are You About?

    Change.

Well that’s the short answer anyway. We want to see things change in the Press, Broadcast and Print media. Why? Because for the last 20 years and the last 5 in particular, the news has become quite good at making a profit, but while they have been busy justifying to investors why they should buy stock in them, they have been slashing staff. This isn’t just the newspapers we’re talking about here, its all of the press.

Well Ok why does this matter to me? Why should I care?

    Because, The media doesn’t want you to change, they are afraid that if they start sharing all the things that go on in the world and stop just focusing on the easy to cover stories that one of two things will happen, Either YOU the consumers will stop watching, Or worse yet YOU will come to EXPECT this kind of reporting from your press and why would this be bad for them you ask? Well they don’t have enough staff as it is to keep the papers filled or keep the 30 minute newscast full of more then yellow journalism and “filler” And if YOU the Viewer/Reader were to come to expect something more then they can fetch off the AP/Newswire they would go under.

So now that you’ve done all that soapbox chattering, What Are you people out to do to change the Press?

    For one, we don’t have any background in the press or media, that right there makes us different!
But bear in mind we’re not out to reinvent the wheel, we just want to make a better tire. So what else makes us different? Well... Thats a good question, one we will try answer, but in reality its not just us that can say what makes us different. That is up to YOU the Viewers/Readers.

So how are you going to make these “changes”?

    We have many plans and ideas we are putting in to action but, we want YOUR feedback, ideas, things YOU want to see more of in the news. So for the next year we are opening up the floodgates as it were. Give us YOUR input!

Well are you going to share what ideas you people do have?

    Well for starters, Have you ever noticed the news seems very one sided? Well we did too, Why is this you ask? To be honest the news believes you need context to understand the content, and no entity in the world can be unbiased if they are using there own option to create the news, now can they? Now even we face the same issue so how do we prepose to overcome it? Simple...... We are making it our job... No... Our Responsibility to provide YOU the viewers/readers with both sides of a story, it will be our policy not to publish a story without at a very minimum a response from the other side, even if that response is “no comment” its your right to know that is the official response. In addition, we are changing some of the fundamentals of reporting, for a story to make it to print, broadcast, web and any other mediums it must first be reviewed by a team of 2 people who have differing  prospectives and opinions. Its their job to remove any bias from a story, its a simple change but one that can vastly affect the way news is conveyed.

OK so thats all great and wonderful, but why should I help you?

    Well thats up to you, if you want to give us your input. Know if you do give us your input and ideas, that they won’t just sit in some inbox somewhere, they will be read and they are very likely going to end up integrated in to the creation of our media outlets. So give us your ideas no matter how simple or small they may seem!

So your going to take MY idea and use it for your profit, what do I get from you in return?

    Well, first off there is something we want to make clear, we are not in this for profit or fame or even fortune. While this may seem odd to most people the truth is our motivation is to enlighten the people of the world as to what goes on in it, not make a killing in the stock market. 44 Cows Communications and its subsidiaries will NEVER be a public company, they will stay a private entity. But with some conditions, for example we are trying to be as transparent as possible.

Now what do you get in return? Seeing that your creative ideas helped shape and shift the news media throughout the world!

Wait your NOT in this for money? Then why are you doing all this? And what happens to the money you do make?

    Nope, We are not in it for money. Though we are out to make profit above and beyond just keeping 44 Cows afloat, but the reason for making more then just brake-even isn’t to pocket it. All the profits 44 Cows, and its divisions make will be split, half will go towards expanding and growing the group, to allow us to have more people out there collecting the news and making it possible to bring you more and more “real” news.

Now your probably wondering what the other half is going towards…..

44 Cows will be setting up a series of NFP’s (Non profit organizations) things such as RedValley.org, which will provide services, equipment and grants to people who are passionate about photography and photojournalism, all that RedValley will ask for in return is that once every year for 4 years the people who have received grants and equipment, donate 10 photos their own to RedValley for use in promotion of both the person who donated them and as a showcase of the assistance RedValley provides.

This is just one example of many NFP’s 44 Cows will create. Now while 44 Cows will create and help fund the NFP’s they will be operated autonomously.

So what does 44 Cows get out of the NFP’s? It will give us a place to look for talented, passionate people to bring in to the 44 Cows family and It is also part our way of giving back to the community
 

So how are you planing to fund all this?

    We are in the process of gathering and discovering different methods of funding available to us, but we need YOUR help! If you or anyone you know might be interested in funding or can assist us with the funding research for 44 Cows Communications, drop us an email!

So are you hiring?

    No not yet, but if this sounds like something you are passionate about and would like to be a part of, send us an email. Even if we can’t hire you right now we are always keeping our ears and eyes open for people to bring in to our family.

What are you planing to do first, and what are the steps to creating all this?

The first step we are taking is to open a small office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. With a staff of 10-13 people, they will be the initial members of the 44 Cows family.

They will be split in to four groups: 

1. Funding & Grant research: handles the research in to funding options available to 44 Cows, from private capital to grants, etc.
2. Family (staff) building: connects with members of the journalism community, passionate writers, etc. When someone decides they want to be a part of the 44 Cows family, its the job of this department to handle meetings with the prospective family member and see how well they will fit in with the family.
3. Presence development: will handle the web presence and any media presence, they help spread the word to the world of who and what 44 Cows is all about. Its also their job to help build the community on which 44 Cows will be built.
4. Architecture design: will help create the workflow and layout of 44 Cows news and organization operations.

These four groups are to “pull” together the people required to build a strong community on which to grow and create awareness of who we are and what we are out to create.

So why 44 Cows? And what are you calling your “outlets”?

    Well, the source of 44 Cows is in it self is a bit of a story. But the short of it is, 44 Cows is taken from a fake station ID or “jingle” which was “Welcome To Valley Of The Ancients Radio, On The 44 Cows Communications Network”. It was late one night in August 2007, when working on a project for someone that Cyrus came up with that jingle, and well it just sorta stuck with us. We have also been told it makes people think of something eccentric and unique which is inline with who we are! We hope that someday we will be able to bring you the full recording the ID/jingle is from, until then You’ll just have to guess its context.

As for the “division” and outlet names, currently only two have true names beyond just a simple descriptive name, and they are: ‘Paradox News’ or ‘Paradox Broadcasting’, the TV broadcast news division and ‘Paradox Data’, the back-end department for IT, who also operates the infrastructure for the public facing Web Division.

How can you be truly unbiased if your supported by advertisers?

   Well our main source of funding will not be standard advertisement like TV spots, etc. Now one of the options we are exploring is product placement not in the spoken sense but more in the visual sense, eg. A coffee cup with a logo on it, etc. Now some might say this creates conflict of interest, however we set a ground rule in place to remove this conflict. If there is news surrounding a advertiser presents it self, even if its “Bad Press” it will be held to the exact same standard as any other story, if the advertiser in question has a problem with that, then they don’t have to be an advertiser on 44 Cows any more, its just that simple.

So since your not going to run “Commercial Breaks” all the time how will you do on air breaks?

    In the last 12 ~ 15 minutes of each hour, we will run a segment called “Journeys” which are a 1 or 2 short journeys set to music, essentially a short over view of a place (an example: South Western Colorado, in 6 minutes).
Journey’s stories can be about a place, its people, its history (usually lesser know history), and some times they are just a creative concept of a story about where a song takes the writer in his mind (this is known as Mind Journeys).

Why run these stories instead of Commercial advertisements?

    The “Journeys” are meant to spread knowledge about the world, through something powerful and moving. This matters to us, because over the years more and more knowledge is being lost, the people that do know the odd things about a place get old, and once they are no longer with us that knowledge is lost forever and for what ever reason people just don’t seem to care enough to ask about this history any more “If its not in a text book or on a test why should I care?”. We at 44 Cows Communications feel its our duty as people to learn and understand all that goes on in our world, “Journeys” will provide one more way to share with the world.

Questions? Comments! Ideas?!?!......
Drop Us a line: contact@44cows.com
We would Love to hear your opinions!