by Katharine Daniels
Founder and Executive Editor
-USA-
Today is not only a celebration of International Women’s Day, but for us it is also a celebration of a great year of discovery, insight, growth, and development.
The WIP is official today. Our first day online.
International Women’s Day was developed in response to the centuries-old struggle women faced to participate in society on equal footing with men. Similarly, The WIP was created to balance the under-representation of women in media and is a platform for women writers to expand their base and reach the general public. The WIP is a place for women writers to tackle the same broad political and social issues as our male counterparts. Our mission is to provide quality news from the unique perspectives of women, accessible worldwide and free to our readers.
As partners in universal struggles such as combating terrorism, ending wars, fighting global warming, and developing cures for illness and disease, we must improve our channels of communication. Mainstream media in the United States does very little to promote the acceptance and understanding necessary for us to succeed in this challenge.
A year and a half ago, The WIP was just an idea. A grainy concept a girlfriend and I discussed over black decaf at Peet’s Coffee. We had an idea to develop a news website where women were the experts, the public intellectuals, the writers. We were sickened that the same under-representation of women’s voices had even manifested in the latest media, the blogosphere. This dream soon grew into a plan that included better international news stories from local writers who would have lived through the events. And in our further development, we discovered a perspective that was forward thinking, careful, contextual, hopeful, and solution-oriented. We discovered a perspective that we felt was absent in mainstream media. We found the feminine perspective.
The incomplete news coverage in the run-up to the Iraq war was also particularly inspiring in the development of The WIP. It is hard to forget the bias and propaganda about weapons of mass destruction and the speculation that became fact about the threat of Saddam Hussein. If all reporters had done their jobs and had asked the tough questions that needed to be asked during this crucial period before the Iraq war—we can only imagine.
Today I am inspired by the challenges The WIP editors and staff face on our first day of publication. We are women and men from such different backgrounds who have worked tirelessly for over a year to develop this news service. The WIP was created to unite, not exacerbate our differences.
We do not come to you with an editorial policy that favors one political belief over another. We do not come to you with a religious affiliation. We do not come to you as members of one cultural group. We come to you only with an invitation, no matter your identity, to participate, because the more voices, the more identities that we publish, the more value The WIP will have.
At The WIP we honor the underrepresented voices. We honor women, we honor the indigenous, we honor the poor, we honor stories that don’t get press and we honor the freedom that is the gift that comes with the open exchange of analysis, investigation and ideas. At The WIP we value education. We value freedom of expression, words and stories and the excitement of learning about other people different from whom we see on a daily basis, people who through their words we often discover are quite similar to us. The internet brings us all closer and makes neighbors out of strangers in other countries, a closeness we could not have imagined possible twenty years ago.
I am the founder and executive editor of The WIP. I am a teacher, wildly passionate about politics, a world traveler, a pacifist. I love people, animals, relationships, learning. I am fascinated by the internet and by its potential. I am fascinated by humanity and our potential. I’ve always known we can do better.
I am a twin and a dreamer and a lover of nature. I want what has been so freely given to me growing up in California, to last for my grandchildren and beyond. I value news because it is a source of education. I value reading because when I am reading I am learning. Sometimes about myself, sometimes about other people. But as long as I am learning, I continue to grow. When I am growing, I know I am living. When I am living, my life is worthwhile.
I love working on The WIP. I love our crazy mix of editors and developers and interns and assistants. I love the writers we meet from around the world. Their beautiful, courageous words and open hearts.
They inspire me to do more, to keep writing, to do better.
Congratulations! It’s wonderful to see it up today!
Well, finally a news source that is truly “fair & balanced” Many congrats on this wonderful achievment – I wish you the best of luck & bastion of great journalism for the future!
J
Congratulations, Kate, on a vision finally realized. Now the fun begins…
Congratulations to you, Kate Daniels. It`s wonderful to meet you. You are a very special, inteligent person, and you and your team you will do very, very well.
Felicitaciones, Kate! El web site se ve perfecto.
beautiful site, day one and counting…
Congratulations Kate! You and your team have done a truly impressive job. I look forward to reading The WIP for many years…
Very nice site!
Kate,
I am amazed by what you have done. You should be very proud of yourself. You are changing the world and the face of women.
Congradulation.
To a job well done Kate Daniels,
This is beautiful website long past do. Congratulations and looking foward to the future of your site.
Tebrikler from Turkey. Great job! I look forward to watching you grow.
Kate, Sarah, Chiwan, Pille and every one else who worked tirelessly on launching the WIP. It’s amazing, inspiring, and what we need! Congratulations!
Congratulations Kate!! This is a fantastic website…a modern and creative way to keep the women around the world in touch. Me encanta!! I can’t wait to see it grow and to participate 🙂
Everything about the Wip is impressive. This could be very big and more to the point, important. All the best. Mark Baer
Congratulations Kate!!! This is so incredibly inspiring. Thank you for giving women a voice. I look forward to all that is to come!
Congratulations! To everyone who worked on it, I take my “hat” off to you. Kate, you are a courageous woman. It is an inspired soul who dares to dream. You have gone way beyond in nurturing that dream into a reality. I look forward to watching and participating in The WIP’s evolution.
Kate: It was such a joy meeting you at the CLCV debate last year and to learn about your endeavor. Congratulations on getting The WIP up and running. I look forward to seeing news that would otherwise be missing from my life.
What an amazing site! We’re thrilled for you Kate! Congratulations!
Dear Kate,
Wow. Congratulations. What a beautiful thing you have created. As you know, I am a news junkie and I look forward to adding your site and reading yours and other talented folks bylines.
Best wishes,
Ben
Dear Kate, I am in awe. What an exciting and innovative idea. Thank you for including me at your launch! I will be watching daily and have already made thewip.net my home page.
Best of luck, Lisa
congratulations kate. you’re the coolest.
I prefer being at the computer less and getting my news from other, off-line sources. But as Ben Bagdikian (author of Media Monopoly) reminded us for decades, it has become increasingly difficult to find reliable, balanced news sources. For me to add a news source to my toolbar, actually wanting to read online news, is a high compliment to The Wip. Congratulations, Kate. You are indeed breaking new ground.
WOW!! I just listened to your interview with Jon Elliott at http://www.jontalk.com. It’s on the front page!!! Fellow WIP readers need to check it out. It was wonderful.
You’ve created a wonderful, exciting website from start to finish.
The Byline Portal is especially compelling.
Many thanks.
Kate-
Congratulations on your stunning interview with Jon Elliott.
Speaking for your mother’s generation, am awestruck and truly grateful that there really is hope for the future, and you’re a shining example of that hope!
love
Anita
Amazing! Simply wonderful. Go get it! -L