Dear Reader,
The Washington Post laid off more than 300 journalists yesterday — cuts that reduce the entire staff by nearly a third. Hundreds of dedicated, talented journalists have stopped working, some midstory, as the newsroom pivots away from covering local and international news, among other beats. This is just the latest in a string of moves made by major media outlets that bring critical attention to the business of making news. In a moment when concerns over profits and losses are reshaping the capacity of legacy media newsrooms and impacting which stories get reported, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight how ProPublica is different.
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit organization. We have no owners or shareholders, no corporate interests and no government contracts. We have no paywalls. Everything we publish is free. The bulk of our funding comes from donations. More than 80,000 individuals have made a donation in the past 12 months. Thanks to all of our donors, we are currently the largest investigative newsroom in the country.
For us, journalism is a public service. We produce nonpartisan investigative journalism in the public interest, connecting the dots in what may feel like chaos, and telling stories with depth, clarity and focus so readers know not just what happened but why it matters. As coverage shrinks at local and national media outlets, and hundreds of professional journalists are no longer able to do what they do best, our role is more critical than ever. And it’s thanks to our readers that we are able to do this work.
Reader funding gives our newsroom the freedom to investigate the most powerful people and institutions in the country, without fear or favor. In the last few months, we have detailed what happened when the Department of Government Efficiency slashed the U.S. Agency for International Development. We wrote about the people caught up in the administration’s immigration crackdown, including the more than 170 U.S. citizens who had been detained by immigration agents. Our visual journalists Cengiz Yar and Peter DiCampo were on the ground in Minneapolis, documenting the reality of the protests and the community’s response. And just this week, we identified the two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti, names the government withheld not just from the public, but from Congress and state investigators as well.
At a moment when so much of the news industry is being reshaped by financial pressure, ProPublica offers a different model — one built on reader support and editorial independence. As a reader of our work, I know you, too, believe that investigative journalism should be free, nonpartisan and accountable only to the public. Today I’m asking you to help sustain it with a donation of any amount. Your support doesn’t just fund individual stories; it stands up for a form of journalism that is committed to holding the most powerful to account, now and in the years ahead.
Thanks so much,
Jill Shepherd
Proud ProPublican
