How to support journalism

Worthy subscriptions, what to read, where to donate

Guido Cavallini, Getty

A number of readers have asked in recent months about how to best support journalism, especially as the profession comes under increasing attack from the incoming administration. There’s also been some discussion about whether it’s worth continuing to subscribe to one of the big, elite newspapers as the owners of those papers have already begun to capitulate to Donald Trump.

Let’s take the second question first. When I was fired from the Washington Post a couple years ago, regular readers told me they had canceled their subscriptions in response. That was flattering, but I also discouraged them from doing so. There were and still are a lot of people doing important work at the Post, and who had nothing to do with an Opinion editor’s decision to let me go. I also continued to subscribe myself.

But Jeff Bezos’s interference last October to stop the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris in November changes the equation a bit for me. If Bezos truly gave a damn about journalism and a press that’s adversarial to power, he could set up a trust to fund the paper in perpetuity, appoint an independent board to govern it, and remain pretty hands off. He could probably do this with a fraction of what he makes on the interest from a single year of Amazon Prime subscriptions.

Bezos didn’t buy the Washington Post to make money. He bought it for clout and esteem. But he’s also clearly willing to infringe on the paper’s independence and diminish its reputation if he thinks it may threaten his other business interests.The 250,000 people who canceled their subscriptions in direct response to Bezos pulling the paper’s endorsement last fall will barely make a dent in his fortune. But it was a clear, unambiguous blow to his clout. That matters.

I also think it’s fair to ask: If Bezos is willing to interfere with the editorial page, where else might he and publisher Will Lewis — a former aide to Boris Johnson — intervene to curry favor with Trump? Will they spike scoops and investigations that might anger the president? When Trump repeatedly threatened Bezos during his first term, it was over his paper’s news coverage, not the editorial page.

That said, I still have my own Post subscription. The paper still publishes excellent journalism and I want to be informed. But at this point I can’t begrudge anyone who has decided to cancel. I think you could make an even stronger case for no longer supporting the L.A. Times, where owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s meddling is quite a bit worse than even Bezos’s.

I also understand why people are frustrated by some of the NY Times coverage of the election and other issues, though I don’t think the argument there is nearly as persuasive. I still subscribe to that paper, too, and here too it’s because I want to be well-informed, and no publication covers the world more thoroughly and effectively. But I do understand why others might feel differently.

As for your local daily, I think it depends on the reporting. I can’t bring myself to subscribe to the Tennessean, our local Gannett paper (though my wife does). That company has laid off a huge percentage of its staff, stripped daily papers of years of experience and institutional memory, and has made their websites unusable.

But there are still traditional dailies out there doing great work (the Philadelphia Inquirer is one example that immediately comes to mind).

Here are some other ways you can support important journalism:

National media

As for what outlets you can read to stay informed, the A.P. and Reuters both cover global breaking news, but also still devote resources to longer, more in-depth investigations. (Readers of this site might be particularly interested in the A.P.’s stellar recent work on deaths in police custody.)

For subscriptions: Rolling Stone has been cranking out scoop after scoop of national political coverage, as have the New Yorker and Mother Jones. The Guardian U.S. publishes terrific investigative journalism, and as a foreign publication it’s in theory less susceptible to institutional pressure from the Trump administration. Few if any publications have done more important political and criminal justice reporting over the last 4-5 years than ProPublica — though I’d add that they are pretty generously funded already.

As for outlets that run on contributions, Bolts is my go-to source for comprehensive election and political coverage of criminal justice issues. The Appeal consistently churns out terrific investigative journalism that’s especially impressive given its small staff and budget. Prison Legal News does yeoman’s coverage of issues related to incarceration (and criminal justice more generally). The Marshall Project still does great work as well, though my sense is that they too are pretty well-funded.

I’d also put in a plug here for techdirt. Mike Masnick and his crew have been publishing indispensable reporting and analysis about the most important free speech/free press issues of the internet era. Masnick in particular has been on a tear lately, publishing clear-eyed analysis not only of real threats to the First Amendment, but also pushing back against false claims of censorship, which often themselves fuel calls for government restrictions on free expression.

You could also consider supporting journalistic podcasts that are still producing new content. I’ve recommended quite a few here over the last couple years.

Local media

Local public radio stations have become an important source of needed reporting you rarely see elsewhere. WNYC has done amazing work on Trump’s business empire, as well as on figures like Leonard Leo and other under-the-radar right-wing groups. But just as importantly, local public radio stations are now doing a lot of the necessary heavy lifting as daily newspapers slowly die, particularly on issues like policing, immigration, and wrongful prosecutions. (WPLN, our local here in Nashville, is no exception.)

Your local alt weekly is almost certainly underfunded, and could use your financial support. Alt weeklies have a storied history of breaking big stories long before daily newspapers catch on (and then report and take credit for them). They’ve also been proving grounds for excellent journalists who may have not had the connections to break into the profession. In the Gannett era of mass layoffs and skeletal newsrooms, the alt weeklies that have stayed afloat tend to retain staff long enough to build up institutional memory about local government.

The long, slow fade of the alt weekly has been a real blow to the sort of adversarial journalism we need to keep public figures accountable. I’ve written this before, but if some civic-minded billionaire really wanted to do something positive for journalism, they could buy up a bunch of alt weeklies, make them nonprofits, and set up an independent board and trust to run and fund them indefinitely.

Speaking of which, one encouraging development in my profession is the move toward reader- and donor-supported models in the form of local nonprofits. One of my favorites here in Tennessee is the Institute for Public Service Reporting out of the University of Memphis. It’s a small outfit that seems to generate scoop after scoop, particularly with respect to policing in Memphis. The Nashville Banner here in my hometown is also a nonprofit publishing terrific, hard-hitting stuff.

You can check sites like Rebuild Local News and the Institute for Nonprofit News to find similar publications in your area. Be sure to spend some time reading these publications before you donate, though. I’ve occasionally seen nonprofit news sites that read more like boosters for the local Chamber of Commerce than independent journalism. You can imagine how that might color their coverage of crime and criminal justice.

Another interesting and emerging model is a publication that’s owned by its staff. Outlets like The Appeal and Hellgate are two examples. One is national in scope and the other local, but both do important reporting in areas that tend to be under-covered.

Finally, a plug for one particular local publication: the Mississippi Free Press is a a beacon of accountability in a state in desperate need of scrutinous coverage of state and local government. The publication won a Pulitzer for its story about welfare fraud that implicated a former governor and retired NFL all-pro Brett Favre, but is now facing a storm of litigation over that story, including demands that the reporter reveal her sources — under the threat of incarceration. They could use some help.

Individual journalists

Getting more granular still, there are of course newsletters like this one. I would of course appreciate your support!

But also, any of the newsletters on my recommendations list are, obviously, people I recommend. If you’re looking specifically for reporting and investigative journalism, I’d recommend Law Dork, Drop Site News, Popular Information, The Racket, Posse Comitatus, Forever Wars, and Moth to Flame. Other sites I would recommend that are more punditry or expertise-oriented but will be important in the years ahead include the Unpopulist, the Bulwark, Democracy Americana, Liberal Currents, and Lucid.

You can also support individual journalists. If you read a piece of reporting that you find important and informative, you can always reach out and ask that journalist if you can send them a “tip” via Venmo or Paypal. This industry is struggling, so I promise you most folks will gladly take your offer in the spirit in which it was intended.

If you can’t afford to give your money away, encouraging and supportive emails go a long way, too. The last eight years have been especially difficult and combative. Journalism has never been all that popular as a profession, but the steady drumbeat from MAGA declaring media are “the enemy of the people” has really ramped up anger. My social media mentions and email inbox regularly churn up people wishing for my death (sometimes in interesting and creative ways!). Stalkers have posted my address on social media and made weirdly sexual comments about my wife. Since the election, Trump supporters have helpfully offered packing tips for my time in “the camps.”

I’ll be fine. I continue to choose to do this for a living because it’s rewarding and fulfilling work. But I can say from experience that the occasional occasional supportive email or note goes a long way. I’m sure other journalists feel the same way.

Legal support for journalists

As Trump and the MAGA world begin to weaponize the legal system agains the First Amendment and free press, journalists will need help to fend off the coming attacks. That’s especially true for smaller outlets and independent journalists.

Here are a few places that help:

— Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press provides pro bono representation for journalists who are sued or prosecuted, or who need legal help to get around state barriers to news gathering.

— The Student Press Law Center provides legal support for student journalists and student-run publications. These publications not only train the next generation of journalists, in recent years they’ve been been breaking stories and have often provided the only comprehensive coverage of increasingly relevant campus issues like public corruption of colleges and universities, or the pro-Palestine protests.

— The Electronic Frontier Foundation is still one of the best and most dedicated groups advocating for privacy, free speech, and digital freedom.

— Groups like the ACLU and the Institute for Justice litigate important free press/speech cases, though both also advocate on a number of other issues — IJ from a libertarian perspective, and the ACLU from a more conventionally liberal viewpoint. Both still do important First Amendment work on precedent-setting cases.

— Globally, organizations like Reporters Without Borders, Media Defence, and the Committee to Protect Journalists provide legal aid to journalists both in the U.S. and abroad.

I’m sure I’ve overlooked lots worthy publications and journalists. No slights intended! Please feel free to post your favorites (or your own publication) in the comments.

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