Means, LLC (also known as The Means Cooperative) is an American mass media worker cooperative. Means was founded in 2019 by filmmakers Naomi Burton and Nick Hayes in Detroit as an expansion of their video production company Means of Production. Means currently has two arms, a

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and ...

streaming service Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

offering ''Means TV'' and a video game publishing arm via ''Means Interactive''.

History

Before founding The Means Cooperative, Burton and Hayes both worked in commercial media production for automakers in Detroit and attended Democratic Socialists of America meetings. They began to find their work morally objectionable and left their jobs to found the video production company Means of Production. Means of Production first came to prominence after producing a viral campaign ad for

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of th ...

's 2018 election campaign.

Branches

Means TV

Means TV is a subscription-based video on demand streaming service owned and managed by The Means Cooperative. The service features films, documentaries, television series, an original news program called ''Means Morning News'', and independent creators from YouTube and Twitch. The cooperative raised nearly $200,000 in its crowdfunding campaign. The full streaming service launched February 26, 2020. Hayes has cited the anarchist podcast '' Street Fight'' as an inspiration for his decision to create Means TV, having worked with Street Fight to record live performances in 2017 and 2019. On Saturday, August 8, 2020 Hayes and Burton's home and office was attacked in a drive-by shooting. Nobody was hurt. According to Hayes, they are "not 100% sure it wasn't politically motivated." No further information about the identity of the shooters has come out.

Means Interactive

Means Interactive is a video game publisher and subsidiary of The Means Cooperative. The first game published by Means Interactive is '' Tonight We Riot'', released in May 2020 and developed by Pixel Pushers Union 512, itself a worker-owned cooperative.

References

External links

* {{VOD services American companies established in 2019 Internet television streaming services Subscription video on demand services Worker cooperatives of the United States Internet properties established in 2019 Organizations based in Detroit Video game publishers Cooperatives based in Maine