A group of activists started a crowd-sourcing campaign to purchase the Tribune Company in response to bids by right-wing moguls Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers to snag the massive newspaper corporation.

According to the Indiegogo campaign site, the Other 98% launched Free the Press to reclaim the media from its corporate owners. The Tribune Company owns a host of influential newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. As the Huffington Post notes, Rupert Murdoch is interested in purchasing the latter two, while the Koch Brothers are eyeing all eight of the Tribune’s papers. To stop them, Free the Press aims to purchase the company and return these outlets to their local communities.

It’s not going to be cheap. The activists gave themselves 30 days to raise $660 million to purchase the company. It may be easy to mock the effort, but Free the Press raised more than $66,000 in a day, and donations continue to stream in. I spoke with one of the campaign’s leaders, Nicole Carty, who also stars in the launch video at the bottom of the page:

So, you’re aiming to raise $660 million to buy the Tribune Company. Is this a serious effort?

That’s the first question I get. I have to ask, “Why is it so crazy for people to own a newspaper company?” We’re obviously not naive. We know we’re asking for a lot of money. I think the real question is “Why is that a lot of money?” We’re more serious about the people being in control of the media.

Your campaign says you aim to give these newspapers “back to the communities.” What does a community newspaper look like?

It would be a newspaper without an agenda, free to report on any news. Journalists could come unshackled to report on news that actually affects communities. We obviously haven’t thought about how it would look like written down, but it would be powered by the people. It would be owned by the people. The press would be free to report on the information we need without corporate ownership or even the government coming down on us.

Click here for the full story.