Hi Reader,
The owners of major media outlets have been making a lot of news themselves lately. Changing policies and priorities at legacy media outlets have refocused attention on how money, power and influence shape both the opinion pages and the newsrooms Americans count on to help make sense of this moment.
With newsrooms shuttering, billionaires buying up major outlets and private equity firms gutting newspapers all over the country, the question isn’t just who reports the news — but what role do owners play in what gets published at all. Since we’re in the midst of our two-week summer member drive, I’d love to take this opportunity to explain who owns ProPublica (spoiler: no one).
As a nonprofit newsroom, we have no ultrawealthy owners, no corporate interests and no government contracts to protect. We get our funding through donations. (More than 80,000 individuals have made a donation in the past 12 months!) No one, including our board or our donors, gets to see our stories until we publish.
ProPublica’s independence means we can investigate the most powerful forces in the country — whether in government, business or the courts — without fear or favor. Our work digging into the unreported luxury vacations and gifts given to Supreme Court justices ultimately led to the adoption of a code of ethics for the nation’s highest court. Our long-running investigation, “The Secret IRS Files,” exposed how our country’s wealthiest individuals avoid paying income taxes entirely. Just last month, we revealed that President Donald Trump’s administration is leveraging the U.S. government’s foreign policy apparatus to advance the business interests of Elon Musk, a top Trump adviser and the world’s richest man. (In response to detailed questions, the State Department issued a statement celebrating Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet company.)
When ProPublica’s series on Supreme Court ethics was awarded the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for public service, senior editor Jesse Eisinger, the leader of the reporting team, said:
“What buoys me is that our work is undoubtedly about more than prizes. We are in a privileged position in this world. We can orient ourselves entirely around the search for truth. We aren’t perfect, and we don’t have a monopoly on the truth, but we care about it more than any other value. It’s a dangerous moment for our profession, the most dangerous of my lifetime, and I think in the country’s modern history. But I remind myself that we have no loyalties, belong to no groups, call for no prescriptions, believe in no creeds above the truth. And for that, I am grateful.”
Journalism like this is possible because so many readers join together to fund fearless, independent reporting. Join us today with a donation of any amount, and help keep investigative journalism strong, independent and accountable only to the public.
Thanks so much,
Megan Martenyi
Proud ProPublican
