Means, LLC (also known as The Means Cooperative) is an American

mass media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises b ...

limited liability Limited liability is a legal status in which a person's financial Legal liability, liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a corporation, company, or joint venture. If a company that provides limi ...

worker cooperative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and Workers' self-management, self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a Company, firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one ...

. Means was founded in 2019 by filmmakers Naomi Burton and Nick Hayes in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

as an expansion of their video production company Means of Production. Means currently has two arms, a subscription streaming service offering ''Means TV'' and a video game publishing arm via ''Means Interactive''.

History

Before founding The Means Cooperative, Burton and Hayes both worked in commercial media production for automakers in Detroit and attended Democratic Socialists of America meetings. They began to find their work morally objectionable and left their jobs to found the video production company Means of Production. Means of Production first came to prominence after producing a viral campaign ad for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 2018 election campaign.

Branches

Means TV

Means TV is a subscription-based

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

streaming service owned and managed by The Means Cooperative. The service features films, documentaries, television series, an original news program called ''Means Morning News'', and independent creators from

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and Twitch. The cooperative raised nearly $200,000 in its crowdfunding campaign. The full streaming service launched February 26, 2020. Hayes has cited the anarchist podcast '' Street Fight'' as an inspiration for his decision to create Means TV, having worked with Street Fight to record live performances in 2017 and 2019. On Saturday, August 8, 2020 Hayes and Burton's home and office was attacked in a drive-by shooting. Nobody was hurt. According to Hayes, they are "not 100% sure it wasn't politically motivated." No further information about the identity of the shooters has come out.

Means Interactive

Means Interactive is a video game publisher and subsidiary of The Means Cooperative. The first game published by Means Interactive is '' Tonight We Riot'', released in May 2020 and developed by Pixel Pushers Union 512, itself a worker-owned cooperative.

References

External links

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Means TV YouTube channel
{{VOD services American companies established in 2019 Internet television streaming services Subscription video on demand services Worker cooperatives of the United States Internet properties established in 2019 Organizations based in Detroit Video game publishers Cooperatives based in Maine