The Means Cooperative, or ''Means'', is an American

anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economi ...

mass media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit information ...

worker cooperative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and Workers' self-management, self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which ...

. Means was founded in 2019 by filmmakers Naomi Burton and Nick Hayes in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

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 A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

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 The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...

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 Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

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 YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

. The cooperative raised nearly $200,000 in its crowdfunding campaign throug
ActionNetwork.org
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 ''Tonight We Riot'' is a beat 'em up game released in 2020 by American studio Pixel Pushers Union 512, and published by Means Interactive, both worker cooperatives, and released for Windows, MacOS, Linux and the Nintendo Switch. The game promot ...

'', released in May 2020 and developed by Pixel Pushers Local 512, itself a worker-owned cooperative.

Cooperative structure

The Means Cooperative's structure is structured in three tiers: ''Employee'', ''Contractor'', and ''Royalty''. The ''Employee'' tier is for employees of the cooperative and offers voting and economic rights in the organization, along with 70% of the year-end profits of Means TV. The ''Contractor'' tier is for frequent contractors of Means TV and offers voting rights and economic rights in the cooperative along with 20% of the year-end profits. The final tier, the ''Royalty'' tier, is reserved for filmmakers, distributors, and creators featured on Means TV. It offers voting rights and acts as a way to provide

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

to these individuals, via 10% of the year-end profits of Means TV.

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