[Announcement] The Bitcoin Sun

[TheBitcoinSun]

The Bitcoin Sun is a weekly online newspaper, published every Monday.
We will be publishing news and commentary of the events and important issues facing the bitcoin community.


Meet the Editors:

Please Note: Each of the portfolios of the subeditors are loosely defined here, while this is an overview, the brief that each editor has is very flexible; do not be surprised if the editors publish articles on topics that they feel are important but are not within their brief.

We have hired three subeditors:  (Each paid 10 BTC / Month)


Ploum (ploum)
Bitcoin Community Editor

Ploum is a Free Software developer and has become focused on the bitcoin Community.  He will be reporting within the bitcoin community itself on the issues that have grabbed the attention of the community as a whole.
Ploum will provide an overview and commentary of what he feels is important, he is free to report on anything that relates to the bitcoin community.  Ploum’s reporting will be especially ‘two-way,’ acting upon feedback from the bitcoin community.

Please contact Ploum via his forum username: ploum


Matt Cropp (carbonpenguin)
Business Editor - Will start on the 16th May

Matt will be our Busienss editor, he has a strong understanding of both traditional business practices and the dramatically changing world the Internet and especially bitcoin has created.  He has been a tireless and passionate supporter of the ‘co-op’ business model.  Writing quite extensively on the topic on his personal blogs.
Matt will provide commentary on exciting events within the businesses that support the bitcoin economy.  He will also provide insight to the trends and sneak previews of new and upcoming ventures.

Please contact Matt via his forum username: carbonpenguin


Garrett Burgwardt (Garrett Burgwardt)
Bitcoin Development Editor

Garret is studding electrical engineering and has a strong interest in electronics.  This makes him well suited to be the development editor.  Garret is passionate about bitcoin and will provide valuable insight into the challenging area of the development of bitcoin.
This will include the development of the original bitcoin client, alternative clients, mining and pools, website interfaces, etc.

Please contact Garret via his forum username: Garrett Burgwardt


There are still two positions free:
Supporting Technologies – Open Transactions, Ripple, NameCoin, Freenet, Tor and other technologies
Trading – MtGox coverage, new payment methods, Best Practices Guides, analysing trends and future changes of the Trading Economy.
Please apply!

As we have three positions free this week, and two the next (assuming that we do not find other great quality candidates to become editors). We have 30 BTC this week, (then 20 BTC weekly) spare that we are putting at the disposal of the hired editors.
This fund will be used for paying freelancing journalists, commissioning artwork (anyone good at inkscape /illustrator?) or whatever the editors decided is a good use of the funds.
Please contact the above editors if you are interested.


Publication of The Bitcoin Sun:

The Bitcoin Sun is a free online publication; we will initially be producing a PDF for download / view every Monday. The first edition will become available on Monday 16th May.
Each editor will provide 3 to 6 articles of 1500 to 3000 words every week by Friday (1200 GMT),  there is no restriction on how they obtain the articles, providing they A: Do not plagiarize.  B: Do not break copyright.
In the future, we will have a website to view the individual articles.
We have a twitter: @TheBitcoinSun, please follow.


Advertise in The Bitcoin Sun:

We believe the Bitcoin Sun will quickly become the de-facto way to keep up-to-date with the events and news within the bitcoin community.  It provides a perfect opportunity to tell a very receptive audience about your bitcoin related service or site!
Standard rates are 5 BTC (1/10 page) to 50 BTC (Full Page).  Please contact TheBitcoinSun as we are in the process of providing advertisements at a much-reduced cost for the first few issues.


The Bitcoin Sun Business:

The Bitcoin Sun is a private venture at this point; we have enough funding for 10 weeks of publication.  Once the start-up has become profitable and we have a strong team we plan to make this venture public.
We will be issuing three types of shares:

A Class:  1000 Shares that share 30% ownership of TheBitcoinSun, while sharing 50% of the dividends.  Available publicly.
B Class:  1000 Shares that share 30% ownership of TheBitcoinSun, while not having any dividends.  Available publicly.
C Class:  1000 Shares that share 40% ownership of TheBitcoinSun, while sharing 50% of the dividends.  The C Class shares will be available only through private sale, and will be offered to key members of TheBitcoinSun team.


The Bitcoin Sun team hopes that everyone will join us in making this the best online newspaper that our community has seen.  We hope to provide a great service that will enable more people to become active within this wonderfull community.


Update: The first edition is out! http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8391.0

[carlerha]

Very nice! I will surely take a look.
Make sure you let people RSS/Atom/[whatever feed] the news

[allinvain]

I'd definitely be interested in purchasing shares one you guys go public/profitable.

[ColdHardMetal]

What is the purpose of the class B shares?

Are they intended to act like preferred stock?

If so, given that your venture doesn't really have any assets to liquidate in the event of failure, and that this class of shares has no dividend component, what is the use of being higher up in the order of payouts?

If not, then why have them?

Not trying to be an ass here, just curious.

Best of luck with your project.

[da2ce7]

What is the purpose of the class B shares?

Are they intended to act like preferred stock?

If so, given that your venture doesn't really have any assets to liquidate in the event of failure, and that this class of shares has no dividend component, what is the use of being higher up in the order of payouts?

If not, then why have them?

Not trying to be an ass here, just curious.

Best of luck with your project.

I believe they are voting shares, you buy them if you want a say in how the company will operate.
I assume they will be worth something if a large 3rd party company wants to buyout a majority of the control.

I guess there are people who buy the A Class shares will also want to buy some B Class shares so they can get more say in how the company operates?

[JohnDoe]

We believe the Bitcoin Sun will quickly become the de-facto way to keep up-to-date with the events and news within the bitcoin community.

It sounds like your newspaper is better suited for in-depth articles rather than providing news, judging by the format and editor specialization. How will you be able to compete against sgornick's Bitcoin News if he updates daily while you update weekly?

[Garrett Burgwardt]

We believe the Bitcoin Sun will quickly become the de-facto way to keep up-to-date with the events and news within the bitcoin community.

It sounds like your newspaper is better suited for in-depth articles rather than providing news, judging by the format and editor specialization. How will you be able to compete against sgornick's Bitcoin News if he updates daily while you update weekly?

I can't speak for TBS leadership, but at least initially I'm planning on fewer in depth articles to explain bitcoin and the cryptography behind it.

[TheBitcoinSun]

It sounds like your newspaper is better suited for in-depth articles rather than providing news, judging by the format and editor specialization. How will you be able to compete against sgornick's Bitcoin News if he updates daily while you update weekly?

Quite true, this newspaper is going to be much more selective with its news.  Our goal is to filter out much of the ‘noise’ and focus on the big issues.  Our articles will be much more in-depth than the service that sgornick provides (not to discredit the very useful service he provides).  We aim to provide insight into not only what is happening but also why things are happening.

Providing a paper that does not overwhelm our readers, but select for the reader what we believe is most important news to focus on, is a gap in the market and holds real utility.

[da2ce7]

so the bitcoin sun is dead?  You guys were just starting to build up a bit of brand reputation...