December 27, 1997

[The following is an excerpt from Wired News, written by Janelle Brown. It is copyright © 1993-7, Wired Ventures, Inc. The full story is available at http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/9312.html]

While Microsoft-backed Slate continues to be a little unclear on any specifics about its plan to charge readers, a smaller grass-roots online publication is launching headfirst into the subscription arena. indieWIRE, an independent film news service, sent out its last free email Friday; as of 5 January, it's being reinvented as a full-fledged filmmaking community topped of by a US$35-a-year news service.

"It's not any easier to be an independent filmmaker than it was a few years ago, but slowly and surely it's at least becoming easier to find and share information," says Eugene Hernandez, editor in chief of indieWIRE. "The growth of the Internet is an incredible resource to independent filmmakers, not only with regard to finding information about film festivals to apply to."

[ . . .]

The daily email news service, in the meantime, will be revamped into two versions. A full subscription version, similar to the one currently dispensed for free, will be available for a $35 yearly subscription; but for those short on cash or unwilling to spend the money, a "summary" version will go out for free 12 hours later, and will link back to articles housed on the Web site. The news service will also be pushed out over PointCast, Netcaster, and a Microsoft ActiveDesktop channel.

Hernandez says it's important that the indieWIRE maintain as much free content as possible. "We're talking indie film here - people don't have much money to spend on anything, let alone information," he explains. But beyond the loyal - and broke - community of filmmakers, he's hoping that the healthy dose of current indieWIRE subscribers who work at major companies like Miramax, Fine Line, or October Films will be willing to pay to get the scoop faster. "The value of email is the convenience of having it delivered to you, and seeing it first."

A number of enthusiastic indieWIRE readers believe the gamble just may work. Currently, indieWIRE has little to no competition: trades like Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety may cover independent film, but from a Hollywood perspective, hidden by a huge amount of mainstream news. The only other resources for indie film news are a sprinkling of online weeklies (such as CineZine), or monthly magazines like Filmmaker. As filmmaker Doug Wolens points out, indieWIRE is one of the few places where filmmakers can consistently and reliably keep on top of often-ignored small film festivals, what films are opening, and what other filmmakers are thinking.

[ . . .]

Meanwhile, others in the independent filmmaking community are eyeing indieWIRE's new subscription fees in the hopes that if it works for indieWIRE, maybe it could serve as a revenue model for their online projects too.

"The issue of economic models in cyberspace is really critical to small enterprises - you can only run on volunteer energy for so long. You have to have money to keep going," says Ruby Lerner, executive director of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. "We all have to ask, how are we going to sustain ourselves?"