Where are the Women? (Niche media makes up for mainstream)

While watching the news media crumble, you have to ask yourself, what are the casualties? There are many public ones — the out-of-work reporters, the corporate-merger leftovers of the weaker papers giving up their name to a bigger one, and in some cases, a slimmer paper.

But what about the other side? What of the topics covered by the newly conglomerated media companies are squeezed out? It’s a harder question to answer, one that requires forethought and diligent surveillance. But many have noticed the fact that the news media has been leaving out women and the issues that affect them. Women’s issues coverage has never been the best, but it’s getting worse as reporters are forced to cover more topics and papers attempt to serve larger regions, broadening their aim and sometimes dulling their investigative instincts.

In this atmosphere, women and men alike are resorting to the Internet to find the coverage they need. And niche news services now have the platform and the audience to provide that product. Women’s eNews, an online news service I’ve been reading for a few years, is one of those services that has thrived online, as one of the only investigative, international, all-women’s-news sources.

So, I took a bus down to New York city to talk to WEN’s founder and editor in chief, Rita Henley Jensen, just a few months before their expansion to a larger site which will be host a women’s community area, where they will host poets, film makers, and activities.

As you’ll see in the video, Rita’s business model differs from the norm in that it is non-profit and ad-free, mostly written by freelancers around the world. Because her news service is one of the only international sources for women’s news, newspapers and other online sources have begun to use WEN like a wire service, buying the rights to reproduce the articles.