The mood was animated as people gathered for the launch of the UJF’s new media cooperative, in Helsinki 9 January. Mediakunta is a non-profit community for journalists and mass media freelancers. The idea of the initiative is joint collaboration and to nurture pride in freelancing. Mediakunta will ease the status of many freelancers so that they are unburdened by the obligations of being an entrepreneur. The cooperative will employ its members for freelance gigs. It will bill clients for the work done and will make the statutory employer deductions from wages. The cooperative will not make a profit and all money paid by members will be used to benefit the membership. [caption id="attachment_568248" align="alignleft" width="392"] Mediakunnan avajaistilaisuus järjestettiin Helsingissä 9.1. Kuvaaja: Kai Widell[/caption] The cooperative will be the sum of its members. To join Mediakunta and work as a member of it you have to be a member of the Union of Journalists in Finland. The cooperative provides its members with networking opportunities, advocacy and training. It understands the media field and can provide members with the support both of the UJF and colleagues. Focus on what you know best – join Mediakunta The cooperative has launched its own website (currently only in Finnish), from which you can find out about its activity, become a member and immediately start using the cooperative’s services. Mediakunta will be continually developing its organization and services based on members’ feedback. You can send in your ideas via the website. One of the things asked at the launch of the cooperative concerned e-invoicing. This has top priority on the Mediakunta agenda, and we will inform about this as soon as online invoicing has been integrated with the intranet system for members. It is already possible to do e-invoicing via the present system by downloading your approved PDF invoice and sending it to the client by email. But this requires some manual work, which is why we will try to get e-invoicing up and running as soon as possible. Mediakunta will hold regular briefings during the spring about its work. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Maiju Mitrunen Executive director of Mediakunta