The American Independent News Network was founded as the
Center for Independent Media in 2006 by David S. Bennahum, a former journalist with
Wired. The group had a stated mission of "investigating and disseminating news that impacts public debate and advances the common good." It operated a news network which consisted of state-based daily news sites
The Colorado Independent,
Florida Independent,
Iowa Independent,
Michigan Messenger,
Minnesota Independent,
New Mexico Independent, and
Washington Independent. It changed its name to the American Independent News Network in 2010. In 2011, the organization's founder, David S. Bennahum, departed the organization after shutting down most of the organization's state websites. The group peaked in traffic and revenues in 2009 and 2010 before both numbers dropped off considerably. By 2013, the American Independent News Network had shuttered all of it sites and gone on hiatus. The
Project for Excellence in Journalism of the
Pew Research Center surveyed and analyzed nonprofit news organizations active on the state or national level in 2011 and again in 2013. The studies found that the most consistently ideological of the news outlets were those that were organized in networks, specifically the conservative
Watchdog.org network and the liberal American Independent News Network. The 2011 study found that "the liberal American Independent News Network [doesn't] ... reveal much about who's paying their bills, and [its] work skews clearly in one direction, both in the topics [it covers] and the content of individual stories". ==2014 relaunch==