Dear COA News readers,

We would like to let you know that COA News has merged with Toward Freedom. The combined project will be taken forward under the Toward Freedom banner with their existing management. COA News management will be assisting and advising with the combined project. Ben Dangl will continue as editor of Toward Freedom, and COA News publisher Steve Anderson will assist in a contributing editor role.

The merger brings together two projects with very similar missions and orientations - our combined strength will help us better achieve our joint objectives.

But why?

The main reason for the merger is that COA News has struggled as a voluntary collective run project since it's inception in 2003. We have always been 100% member supported, and while this allowed us to be completely independent, it has also made us very vulnerable. As some of the COA News collective began working on other projects, the future of COA News was in doubt before discussions with TF began.

We're really excited with this collaboration, especially since TF has agreed to publish articles and maintain our Independent News Affiliates Network. TF will feature diverse, credible independent news and analysis as COA News has been doing for the last several years. With our combined audience more people than ever will get their news and information from our network of independent news outlets.

It is an exciting time for this combined project, I hope you'll continue to visit www.towardfreedom.com and spread the word to friends and family. The COA News archives will continue to be maintained as a public resource.

Thank you so much for supporting COA News for the past several years. We couldn't have published so much important material without you. We couldn't have been an early key outlet for important issues like Net Neutrality without you. We hope to have even more impact with Toward Freedom.

While I plan to actively contribute to Toward Freedom, I am personally turning most of my attention to Canadian media democracy work. If you're interested please check out Campaign For Democratic Media (www.democraticmedia.ca), and my new media column "Media Links" (www.medialinkscolumn.com).

Keep moving,

Steve Anderson
Contributing Editor, Toward Freedom

Former Editor, COA News

PS. please bookmark and regularly visit www.towardfreedom.com