What happens to a democracy when only the rich can afford to get reliable news?

Friend,

Since the start of 2023, major layoffs have been announced at MSNBC, Gannett, Insider, NPR, Gimlet Media, the Los Angeles Times, and FiveThirtyEight. Vice Media filed for bankruptcy. MTV News and BuzzFeed News shut down entirely.

What do all these news outlets have in common? They are all free outlets, largely funded by advertising dollars.

Meanwhile, the news outlets that are doing well in terms of revenue and profits are the ones with expensive subscription fees and paywalls that most Americans can’t afford, like The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and The New York Times.

So what happens to a democracy when only the rich can afford to get reliable news—and the majority of working-class and low-income voters are left with cheaply produced TV news and whatever happens to be going viral on social media?

And what are the consequences of this crisis in news access at a time when one of America’s major political parties is in the thrall of an authoritarian and the other remains deeply aligned with corporate power and Wall Street?

This is the alarming situation we find ourselves in as we launch our Mid-Year Campaign with a must-reach goal of $80,000 by July 1. Every day, Common Dreams produces quality, online journalism for our millions of readers free of charge—but we simply cannot do that without the financial support of our readers.

So if you can afford it, we’re asking each of you to please make a donation to our Mid-Year Campaign and help save the free, quality journalism that democracy needs to survive.