February 25, 2015 4:30pm by David Farrar

Pellett loses $250,000 on Scoop

Ownership changes at news and press release website Scoop mean several shareholders are short of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In December the website’s majority shareholder, Margaret Thompson (mother of Scoop publisher Alastair Thompson), exercised her power of sale under her first-ranked security, effectively wiping out all other shareholders.

Imarda co-founder and chief executive Selwyn Pellett held 20% of the shares in Scoop, with the rest being split between several shareholders including journalists Gordon Campbell, Russell Brown and Pattrick Smellie.

Asked how much he had invested in Scoop, Mr Pellett says, “How much I invested and how much it gobbled up are two different answers.”

“The truthful answer is that I don’t know, but [the total amount lost] would be approaching $200,000 to $250,000.”

He paid $250,000 or so for a 20% share in Scoop?

Scoop has reached 30% of its $30,000 fund raising goal on Pledge Me.

I would be saddened if Scoop fails. Their press release archive alone is incredibly useful. And I often read what Gordon Campbell writes, even if I rarely agree.

142 people have pledged $10,444 which is an average $70 or so. You can pledge here.

However I have doubts that donations is a sustainable model going forward. People may donate once for a good cause, but harder to get them doing it regularly.