CivicActions launches HightowerLowdown.org

CivicActions launched HightowerLowdown.org on Monday. This site follows on our launch, earlier this year, of JimHightower.com and last year’s Hightower Roadmap, our first project with Hightower’s team.

Jim Hightower, the former agriculture secretary of Texas, is a well respected populist commentator and pamphleteer. Every month Jim and his associates publish four pages packed with insightful and often humorous political and social commentary. The HightowerLowdown.org site is the online version of this influential monthly newsletter. Existing print subscribers can activate a Drupal account and receive access to the premium content. The system of online account activation communicates with their third-party subscription fulfillment firm.

The HightowerLowdown.org also republishes Jim Hightower’s daily Common Sense Commentary from JimHightower.com. The Common Sense Commentaries consist of a text transcript of a 2-minute audio broadcast. (Jim has been doing these audio commentaries for over six years making him the first podcaster, though none of us knew it!) Listeners can subscribe to an RSS feed for these “podcasts” or listen to them on the website.

Both sites are running Drupal 4.7, incorporate the innovative Content Construction Kit module, and use the MLM/News/Send module suite (developed in part for this project) to send weekly mass emailings to Hightower’s readers. We use the Premium Module, developed for this project, to restrict access to the newest content on the site. The Guest Pass module (also developed for this project) allows subscribers to send a guest pass to premium content to their friends and family. And we use CiviCRM and CiviMail to keep track of subscriber options and to enable the Hightower staff to send highly targeted email announcements.

We were privileged to work with Deanna Zandt, Phillip Frazer and the rest of Jim Hightower’s associates on these two websites, and we look forward to further innovating and expanding the online presence and community surrounding Jim Hightower.