General News / April 14, 2020

District 2.0: We’re launching a new website and we need your help

General News / April 14, 2020

District 2.0: We’re launching a new website and we need your help

COVID-19 has put our future as a publication in jeopardy. We’ve launched a kickstarter for a new website, with some great rewards for backers. Meeting the target could mean the difference between District surviving or not.

Since starting in 2014, District has strived to provide a home for underground culture that had previously been lacking in Irish media. With that, a core part of our mission at District has been the celebration of Irish creativity. We see Ireland’s limitless potential, and a passionate and progressive youth culture that we are excited to champion on the world stage.

However, the unavoidable reality is that running an independent media company is incredibly challenging and, unfortunately, due to COVID-19 our future as a publication has been put in jeopardy.

We have profound respect for our audience and making the decision to launch a funding campaign was not an easy one. It is extremely important to us that the result of our fundraising yields additional value to our supporters rather than simply paying our wages.

To that end, in exchange for your support, we want to bring you an entirely new District website that will be serving you better quality content, more often, on a better platform, for free, for the foreseeable future.

Furthermore, given the current situation, we have decided to cancel the launch of our next print magazine (fittingly titled The Chaos Issue) and re-purpose all of its contents into our first ever virtual issue which will be available on our new website exclusively (for a limited time) to our Kickstarter backers.

We are delighted to announce that the (digital) cover of Issue 007 will be graced by none other than Peggy himself, Buttermilk Jesus, JPEGMAFIA. Your support of our campaign will grant you early access to what will surely go down as one of our most memorable features.

In order to fulfil our ambitions to move from our music blog roots to a publication that reflects more facets of alternative culture including food, art and fashion it became clear we needed a new website.

Prior to the pandemic we began working with Plinth (the agency behind Crack Magazine) on a site redesign that would radically expand our remit. However, this was stalled and many other projects were cancelled, leaving a vulnerable business like ours in a precarious position.

While we are taking every measure we can to find external funding and to keep our heads above water, the effective shutdown of all of our revenue streams we are almost entirely dependent on your help.

The €17,400 that we are seeking to raise is informed by the quote that we have already agreed upon with our design agency. This sum isn’t speculative. It is a precise reflection of what is necessary to get the job done.

Ultimately, we want this District site to become a new home for cutting-edge Irish culture regardless of whether that’s in music, film, food, art, or design. We want it to be a place where forward-thinking people go for thought-provoking conversation and premium storytelling.

While we have put some money away for a rainy day to cover staff and other payments we have also committed to building this new website. Though this might not seem like the most important goal at this time, getting the new website built is crucial as all of our future business is dependent on what we have stressed the new website will be able to do.

All of the money raised from this campaign will go directly to covering the costs of the site build, which is incredibly important in two ways.

Firstly, it means we can continue using our rainy day fund to guarantee we can continue as a business..

Secondly, it means we can have our new website delivered on time so we can fulfil commitments on future projects.

Our reward structure has been designed to ensure maximum value for our supporters. It is of paramount importance to us that your support of District leaves you better off. While we are asking you to be charitable, we understand that we are not a charity. We have made an effort to leverage whatever resources are available to us to ensure that every tier will give you a significant return on your investment.

We are not blind to the complexities of the situation and we are all less than comfortable with the prospect of fundraising against the backdrop of a worldwide health crisis. However, after much careful deliberation we decided that a fund-raising model whereby our audience had control over our outcome was the best way of tackling our situation.

Reaching the target on this would mean the world to us. Without looking too negatively at the situation, it might mean the difference between District Magazine surviving or not. A successful campaign would see us fight another day as a small company during what is the most testing time for any business in memory.

You can read the full story and donate below:

Click here to support the kickstarter.