What the hell is Niagara Buzz?

Our readers will be those who are fed up with Greater Niagara Newspapers, The Buffalo News, big government and big business in general. We pledge to never “sell out” our readers’ interests to “the man.”

Niagara Buzz is an effort by local writers and artists to provide an online community for Niagara County progressives.

We are seeking advertisements from small, locally owned, socially responsible businesses. Our management structure invites Buzzheads to take charge of their work and post it on the website. We encourage all of our contributors to develop their niche (i.e.: invent their own beat) as they see fit.

One of the highlights of Buzz is that anyone can instantly publish brief articles, announcements, write comments about articles written by others, opinions and gossip – and we encourage you to do so. We’re also open to accepting new Buzzheads. If you are a talented writer or artist with a unique point of view, Buzz wants to publish your work. Contact me at Richardson@niagarabuzz.com. We'll talk.

The staff we’ve assembled is educated, experienced and alternative. The corporate news media poorly serve Niagara County, failing to inform its customers of what’s really happening in an evermore messed up environmental and political economic situation, and we at Niagara Buzz have taken it upon ourselves to cover that which isn’t covered by the local media from angles they wouldn’t dare consider because of their corporate nature. Buzz will inform readers about things they won’t hear from mainstream news outlets, providing them with a wider perspective with which to view our ever-changing world.

We also aim to prove that Niagara County has a rich cultural underground, which might surprise many people. Our readers will be those who are fed up with Greater Niagara Newspapers, The Buffalo News, big government and big business in general. We will hold a competitive edge over our competition because we’ll be the only daily alternative news and culture source in Niagara County. Buffalo has Alt Press. We pledge to never “sell out” our readers’ interests to “the man.”

The online news business is a growing phenomenon. Traditional newspapers have found it difficult to adjust, finding that webzines are cutting greatly into their readership. As traditional newspapers are strapped because of high expenses and the corporate need for 30 percent profit margins, Niagara Buzz is uniquely positioned to undercut Greater Niagara Newspaper’s share of the market.

The rising discontent of the county’s only daily newspaper’s readership, manifested by plunging circulation and advertising revenue, offers Buzz the opportunity to grow into a weekly print paper, and then perhaps a daily. All indications suggest Greater Niagara Newspapers is eventually going to merge its four municipal operations into a single daily, leaving much of the county with even less coverage than it’s getting now and creating a fresh pool of unemployed journalists looking for a chance to do some real reporting.

This is how Buzz formed in the first place. Myself, Patrick Lowther, Avis Townsend and Scott Leffler are all former GNN reporters, editors, columnists and photographers. Our only real competition is The Niagara Falls Reporter, but that publication focuses solely on Niagara Falls and only updates its website once a week. Buzz will focus on all of Niagara County and update daily.

My contribution, as editor, will be oversight of Buzz’s content (I hope I’m up to the job, I was told by editors at the Union-Sun & Journal that I hadn’t shown them enough as a reporter to be an editor). My experience is wide-ranging, and I bring some progressive credentials to the table.

As a poet, playwright, essayist and unemployable columnist, I decided if I couldn’t find work I’d create my own. Fed up with the one-sided, corporate-friendly presentation of local news, I decided to form Buzz and recruited one hell of a staff.

I’ll be writing a weekly column called “Bastard Politics,” focusing on bottom up democracy in an effort to decentralize power from Albany and Washington to your hometown and neighborhood. I’ll also write feature articles that connect global and national issues to the local political economy and culture.

Pat is our photography editor, and also oversees our marketing efforts. He has had numerous award-winning photography exhibitions in Buffalo and Niagara County and was the US & J’s most popular photographer for many years. Pat’s a very outgoing man who has a rapport with some of the local business community, having spearheaded along with Dave Stockton the Richmond Avenue restoration project in Lockport.

He’ll also write weekly photo essays, called “Photo News & Views,” which will show Buzz visitors what’s happening in their world, rather than tell them. Pat’s artwork features impressionistic manipulations of photo-technology to create the sensation of alternative realities. He is keenly aware of the role of time in any particular place and brings that perspective to Buzz’s political economic and cultural vision for Niagara County.

Avis, a former social editor and award-winning columnist for the US & J, is Buzz’s business manager. She'll be writing a weekly advice column, “Ask Avie,” in which she will share her wisdom with readers by helping them cope with their problems. She’ll also be returning to her award-winning style, but with decidedly more edge, in her weekly column, “Bitchin’,” which will focus on lakeside news and gossip you won’t hear anyplace else. Townsend is also a nationally published author of fiction and is itching to try some gonzo journalism on the local level.

C. Roberts-Abel will be writing a series of in-depth articles examining the atom bomb’s legacy in Niagara County. Roberts-Abel has a master’s degree in nuclear history from Empire State University, having done her thesis on the county’s role in the Manhattan Project and the price it paid in human health and environmental destruction, and is now working on a doctorate.

Scott is a veteran political journalist and columnist and host of WLVL’s “Dialog,” a morning radio call-in show focusing on local politics and business; and “Tradio,” the station’s afternoon sales program. He will be focusing on politics, business and technology – three areas he’s expert in.

Jared Schickling is Buzz’s young poet. In his mid-twenties, he’s already had his first book of poetry accepted for publication by Publish America. He’ll be writing a weekly column called “Folks,” profiling anonymous local eccentrics in literary vignettes.

E.R. Baxter III is a semi-retired Niagara County Community College creative writing professor who’s well known throughout Western New York as a “barbarian” poet and “American primitive.” Bob’s an outspoken environmental activist and contentious political writer. He is also much loved by his thousands of former writing students, who will be able to keep track of his musings in his weekly column, “Baxter Talk.”

Alex Mead (aka Green Earth Al) is a Buffalo activist, web designer and writer, and he will be keeping our readers posted on the activities of the Buffalo anti-globalization and peace movements. He has written many thoughtful essays about corporate pollution and malfeasance, some of which have been published in national webzines, like The Crisis Papers.

Each of us writes in our own voice and adopts whatever style we please in conveying our message. The result is a final product that celebrates the diverse intelligence of Niagara County’s lesser-known inhabitants. Rather than seeking consistency, Niagara Buzz will render a variety of alternative views for its readers’ beneficial and pleasurable consumption. We are actively seeking a writer who is knowledgeable about Niagara County’s hidden history.

We intend to sell advertising space to small, locally owned businesses that we are familiar with and we know run a socially responsible operation. By socially responsible, we mean they pay their taxes, obey the spirit of the law and have a high level of customer satisfaction.

Niagara Buzz is a small business with a political economic bent against big business and big government. We aim to bring people together who want to nurture an alternative way of living in Niagara County. We envision Buzz uniting folks the way Paul Glover has in Ithaca, who's created an alternative currency and created a $100 million health care fund that charges its members $100 annual premiums (see http://buffalo.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=4486).

The people we will serve and reach out to are those who are interested in dropping out of the system and into a new, old fashioned way of doing things where interpersonal relationships are paramount. The Internet provides a unique opportunity for doing this. One need only consider the instant anti-globalization demonstrations that are occurring in big cities around the world, organized by postings on various web sites, to realize the communal power of cyberspace. This community will be Niagara Buzz’s financial base.

Finally, I'd like to give a special thanks to Green Earth Al and Bruce Jackson, Buffalo Report's editor. After leaving the newspaper business I kind of moped around for awhile. It wasn't until I witnessed police brutality against war protestors in Buffalo that this snowball began rolling.

I was reading Buffalo Report, and Bruce asked for eyewitness accounts of the beatings. I told him what I saw and soon wrote a couple more pieces for him. And the old juices began stirring again.

It was after reading one of these Buffalo Report articles that Green Earth Al contacted me. We met and he said he'd be willing to help me get a web site started. True to his word, he played a fundamental role in the early stages of Buzz's creation.

If it wasn't for you two guys, Buzz might not exist.

Thank-you.