LISTEN Media's History
In 1994, several members of the Earth Religions Community in Southeast Virginia decided to start a newsletter for others in their religious circles. The first eight issues were done at home on personal laser printers, and distributed around 1000 copies, total, to the local area. By that time, the producers could see that there was a greater need than they'd anticipated, and realized they wouldn't be able to keep up with the growing demand for more, and bigger, newsletters.
In 1995, we took the next step, incorporating as a tax-exempt organization, PagaNet, Inc. We also enlarged the publication, PagaNet News, from the small newsletter we'd been producing to a grayscale, tabloid-sized, newsprint periodical, and increased our distribution to 2000 copies per issue. That year, we began selling advertising and subscriptions to cover our costs, but we kept the publication free at distribution sites around the country. In 1996, our first web team member joined the team, and began to get our name -- and our publication -- out on the Internet.
In 2002, we took the plunge and went with a color cover on PagaNet News. Distribution grew until we were sending out over 3000 copies with each issue. Still, distributors contacted us and wanted more.
In 2005, we began to see that our original mission, to foster and promote the growth and practices of polytheistic religions, had been fulfilled. Groups and religious practices that had been shunned and feared in the past were now becoming commonplace. Here, in our own backyard, practitioners of the various Earth-based religions were no longer even newsworthy.
While some harassment still did take place in various cities around the U.S., by and large, Earth Religions had become accepted. But while that mission had been filled, we also saw that another need -- that of greater dialogue in the interfaith arena -- was growing by leaps and bounds. We decided to shift our efforts to a new, expanded mission and vision. We changed the look and feel of our publication, changing its title to If ... A Journal of Spiritual Exploration. We also changed our corporate name from PagaNet, Inc. to LISTEN Media, Inc. The LISTEN acronym stands for "Living In Spiritual Tolerance, Enlightenment and Nonviolence," but it is also in recognition of what we feel is most important in the interfaith outreach arena -- we must LISTEN to each other.
Around that time, we began to reach out to members of other faith groups as readers, contributors, writers and supporters. We got involved in several local interfaith outreach efforts, including the One Love Music and Arts Extravaganza, the EarthDance Worldwide Peace Day event and the Unitarian Universalist International Day of Peace. Our Board Chairman and Senior Editor joined an interfaith clergy group. And we also began to be concerned about the ecological footprint we are making. It was at that time that we made the decision to expand our Web presence, and go entirely digital with our publication, using fewer resources and reaching out to an even wider audience in an effort to LISTEN to each other.
Today, our founding team of two has grown to a board of four members, a website team of four additional members, an ever-growing team of writers and photographers, and the volunteers who come and fill in for short times, and then move on. It's been a wonderful experience, and promises to be even more rewarding in the years to come. We hope you will decide to join us on this journey, and to add your voice to the symphony.
In
Spiritual
Tolerance
Enlightenment and
Non-violence