Nearly Three Decades of Independence

Consortium News was launched on Nov. 15, 1995 when the internet was in its infancy, blazing a trail for the explosion of independent media to follow.

Robert Parry receiving the 2017 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in London on June 28, 2017.  From left to right with Parry, are Victoria Brittain, John Pilger and Vanessa Redgrave. (Shirlee Matthews)

By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News

In terms of the internet, November 1995 is ancient history. That’s when from AP investigative reporter Robert Parry founded this website as an alternative to the repressive consensus of the mainstream media, all of which at the time was still available only on paper.

Parry wrote that the first edition of what was initially known as The Consortium went live “on or about Nov. 15,” 1995.  Just five days later, on Nov. 20, 1995 Salon published its first online edition as salonmag.com. 

Consortium News appeared two months before The New York Times launched its website on Jan. 22, 1996.  The Los Angeles Times launched on April 8, 1996 and The Wall Street Journal first published online on April 29, 1996, introducing the first “pay wall” (CN has always been free.)  The Washington Post went online in June 1996.   

Since those pioneering days, independent journalism on the internet has exploded to the point where, together with social media, it has become a threat to the Establishment, which is losing the firm control of information it had long enjoyed through the corporate-owned media. 

Much of this challenge to entrenched power was started by Consortium News. Please help us continue to loosen the Establishment’s grip on power based on what they want you to read and hear.  

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