When Amanda Zamora and Emily Ramshaw started the 19th start of 8.5 million US dollars in August 2020, they started with a budget that most news agencies can only dream of. Five years and 100 million US dollars that were later collected focus on the next chapter of the 19th on the essential growth of its audience and ensure that money is never a problem. Ramshaw, the CEO of the 19th, believes that the establishment of a foundation can help.
The first strategic plan of the 19th, which was released last week, outlines seven main goals to promote the mission of the non -profit organization, to serve American women and LGBTQ+ people with journalism about politics and public order through an intersectional objective. The boss under these goals is the creation of a $ 30 million “quasi-endowment”, which the 19th can use in the event of a financial crisis. Since the three-year foundation campaign last January, the 19th $ 25 million has collected, said Ramshaw.
After Ramshaw and her team testify to the (many) economic challenges of the news industry and now had the attacks by the Trump government on trans people, freedom of the press, reproductive health and much more, Ramshaw and her team wanted to secure the future of the 19th.
In the “Saye Sayway” campaign from 19th 19th, acorns can be seen. It is a playful allusion to twist resources for winter and other difficult times.
In a donation campaign email on Wednesday morning (subject line: “Here we are playing.”) The outlet informed the newsletter subscribers that it had already increased its media liability insurance, who had trained its employees in view of the threats in terms of physical and digital security and have held risk assessment and worst-case scenario planning workshops. All of these security upgrades cost money, and the 19th would like to ensure that the organization, which now employs 54 full-time employees, never has to rely on a source of attention or income.
“From a journalistic point of view, success is an audience that reflects itself in our work,” said Ramshaw. “It is a financial infrastructure that enables us to live without fear and without waiting for the other shoe, which we have spent in our previous life. Success means an organization that feels safe and persistent, where people feel where people have the opportunity to grow and be themselves. For me, success is a news organization that looks like a different news organization in America.”
A foundation is a pool of donated funds that are invested to generate additional income for a non -profit organization. While traditional foundations typically prohibit the expenditure of the main amount, quasi-endowments are more flexible and can be used in emergencies. Foundations are common in university formation, but are relatively rare in the non -profit news industry. The Scott Trust Foundation, for example, generates income for the Guardian news farms. News agencies associated with universities (including the USA in the Nieman Lab) can also benefit from foundations.
In the 19th case, Ramshaw said that the idea for quasi-commitment was from a question that she constantly fell from philanthropic donors: where are her new sources of income?
Labilities want publications that are not only dependent on philanthropy and often search for subscription or advertising revenue as a sign of a diverse income portfolio. But that doesn't work for the 19th, whose journalism is freely consumed. And during the 19th Event Sponsoring and Advertising on his website and in his newsletters, they would never be important sources of income, said Ramshaw.
“There are too many news editorial offices that are currently chasing the same dollars,” said Ramshaw. “My vision for the 19th is to pursue the same foundations that pursue all others and bring new people to the media financing -Scosystem. I believe that the 19th, in view of what we cover, has the unique opportunity to do so. With the foundation, which continues to support the foundation to support people to continue to do people.
When Melinda Gates granted a scholarship of several million dollars to the 19th last year, Ramshaw decided that money could be used to start the quasi-endowment that is housed in a high-ranking savings account instead of being invested in shares. These interest income will then be achieved to the annual operating budget of the 19th, which is currently around $ 12 million. If the foundation of the 19th grows with more donations, interest income is also expected. The money will be the annual fundraising goals of the 19th and “remove the pressure of philanthropy,” said Ramshaw.
“I was encouraged to see how excitedly and consistently our supporters and big donors said:” I will continue to support your general operating budget, but I will also give a unique gift for the foundation, “said Ramshaw.” We are not there yet, but I am very confident that this will be a tool in our tool with which we will be a new source of income and the ultimate safety net Can create worst-case scenario. [Given] The risks that our industry are currently facing and [the heightened need for] Legal support, liability insurance and all this type of thing … prohibit God to use some of these dollars to protect the 19th, but we will be able to do this because of this equipment. “
The other main and perhaps more difficult goals of the strategy plan include the doubling of the “Total journalism range” of 19th (a metric created in 2024, which was taken up by the addition of all views and the commitment of a story to its own and third-party platforms) and to increase the subscribers to the newsletter by 2028.
Ramshaw refused to share the current number of newsletter subscribers to the 19th newsletter, but said that the entire journalism was 57 million in 2024. Dick Tofel, the former President of ProPublica and author of the second raw design of the Journalism Newsletter, said that the goals in the strategic plan of the 19th are ambitious in view of today's media landscape.
“What I suspect will be the most difficult is the very clear target group destinations because it is a challenge for news in general,” Tofile told me. “You have the very significant weakening of the Google search. You have the uncertain consequences of the increase and the increasing omnipresence of AI. You have the move to Multimedia when the 19th – how many non -profit news organizations – was largely born in the text. All of these things in relation to the growing audience are only a kind of atmospheric challenges.”
In order to grow and maintain these new target groups, the 19th will experiment with new pop-up newsletters on topics that are of interest to readers but may not have committed beat reporters, said Alexandra Smith, Chief Strategy Officer Alexandra Smith. The first pop-up will come onto the market later in autumn and “like politics, politics and power can influence the experiences of our audience”.
“What our audience is looking for by us [is explaining how] They are personally affected by political changes, “said Smith.” We help people control the current landscape. There is also a strong one [interest from] Allies who understand how they can stand up for the causes that they are interested in are making more stories that show the joy, victories, successes and the community executives who make a difference in various topics or in their communities to show our audience at the moment. ”
The 19th will also examine the cooperation with independent creators, said Smith, to expand the 19th news network, its publication partnership with 25 like -minded news agencies. The 19th was not missing about details about the Creator project and Smith described the idea as in the early phases. She presents various options for the collaboration: Some creators may want to talk to their audience about why they like the 19th as a news source, while others choose the citation of 19th journalism in their videos. The 19th, which has around 85,000 Instagram followers, will initially prioritize the cooperation with LGBTQ+ jerstodils in order to support the creators affected by anti-queer public order, and as a way for the 19th place to achieve the strange audience, said Smith.
“More and more of our audience trust people who have life experiences who resemble their own, and we know that platforms are working on raising the work of these independent creators, making journalism and finding ways to find it in front of the people who need it the most,” said Smith. “We have independent creators who want reliable sources of information and want to work with newsrooms that you trust, who report the story exactly, pretty and fairly.