With the furry fandom continuously spreading and developing along the Internet’s wave since the 80s, there has been an increasing amount of initiatives that aim to bring furry fandom news to the broader community.
Alongside developed furry news outlets like Dogpatch Press, Furry News Network (FNN) and Flayrah that’s popular within the Western furry fandom, over the years, Asian and African furries are starting to step up to fill in the vacuum.
Notable channels such as South Africa-based South Afrifur; in Asia, Singapore-based Global Furry Television and Taiwan-based FurTimes (Chinese: 兽时报) popped up in these regions, all which have set their goals to bring more content and awareness of the African and Asian furry communities respectively to the global stage.
In today’s first instalment of The Furterview, a brand-new furry interview Q&A series on GFTV NewsHub, we talk to Torazer, founder of Indonesia-based Torazer Furry Network, and Lonyee, founder of Netherlands-based furnews.eu – both channels with a focus on furry fandom news that was established as the pandemic raged back in 2020.
Why choose to do furry news?
Torazer: I wanted to do furry news, so that I wanted to keep all my local furries informed with important events and even hard-hitting topics.
All in-depth and objective, basically anything a news network can do.
Lonyee: Well… I thought that it would be nice to give other furs in the Fandom a general idea of what is going on around the world.
By starting Furnews, I was planning to give others the opportunity to see more than only their followers on Twitter would share for them.
Do you think furry news is important for the fandom?
Torazer: The answer is simple. Yes. The most important thing is that I wanted to bring what’s happening here, there and everywhere to everyone in the fandom.
Like, say, when a new furry game comes out, or when a local furry event is happening. All will be covered fairly and inclusively as possible.
Lonyee: Of course, it is a way to give people a broader understanding of the Fandom itself, and for outsiders it would be a perfect way to learn about what is going on and the way we are as furries.
What kind of impact do you think furry news can create for the fandom? Any opportunities?
Torazer: I think furry news can do something good for the fandom. I’m basically spreading all the good vibes and positivity to the fandom, without the passive-aggressive part.
Not only that, they can also help wake up to society’s problems, like mental health, gender equality, acceptance, all sorts of things. And that’s how furry news networks works.
We find this as an opportunity to invite them and let them open up about everything to us.
Lonyee: Most of the impact will most likely be positive, others can learn, watch and/or notice things that they wouldn’t have if there weren’t any news companies.
Take for example a fire at a hotel convention or a mayor outside public thing that happens, it will be easier to know things about it with a site where everyone can read about it.
News is not only a way to serve people the things that are happening, but it is also an archive for the things that happened in the past.
Moving forward, any plans for your channel and what do you want to achieve with it?
Torazer: Currently, I’m still working on TFN’s future plans. Including a possibility of launching a website and even live streams to occupy the channel’s empty space.
I still have a handful of shows on the way.
Lonyee: Not really much, I hope to be building a bigger audience in the future, but as of now I want it to stay small. Currently, I’m doing it all by myself without someone else’s help. And since I am still studying, it is better to keep it small.
But the thing I want furnews to become: I think it is important for everyone to have a source of reliable and fact checked news. So I want to make news posts that are actually news and information, this will make furnews not the fastest story pushing news site, but more of a nice site to come at least once a week and read articles.
The audience that visits our site isn’t really that important, as long as they get pleased for the thing they came for, and that’s news.
Links:
Torazer Furry Network: https://t.me/ToraFurryNet
Furnews.eu: https://twitter.com/furnewsofficial
GFTV NewsHub 
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