Bad news, Jack: we just learned that yet another digital news outlet is shutting down the site and laying off its staff. Founded in 2007, the feminist site Jezebel carved out a niche in progressive media by focusing on gender, sexism, and power that have since become mainstays in society's conservations.

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In a memo to staff, the chief executive of G/O Media, the owner of Jezebel, cited “While G/O Media is a lean, nimble organization, we are not immune to the economic headwinds rattling our business.” We have heard that repeatedly whenever a news media outlet has to lay off staff, or like Buzzfeed News and now Jezebel, shut down.

The problem is that almost every news outlet relies on advertising revenue to cover expenses. Unfortunately, Big Tech like Facebook, Google, and Amazon have taken an ever-growing share of this coveted revenue stream. On top of that, many businesses are spending less of their budgets on advertising—leading to decreased demand and pricing.

As a result of this lost revenue, many news outlets have had to cut expenses that often come at the cost of quality content or accessibility. Almost every news outlet has made some drastic change to survive. According to G/O Media's CEO, he had talked with “over two dozen potential buyers,” but did not find a new home for the site.

Other outlets have used paywalls, found a billionaire backer, become a publicly traded company, laid off staff, cut departments, stopped printing publications, or been bought and sold to the highest corporate bidder.

Daily Kos went a different route. For years now, Daily Kos has relied on donations of just a few dollars from our readers and activists to help us make ends meet—not a paywall or billionaire backer. Today, those grassroots donations are our largest source of income to help us pay the bills.

Honestly, we prefer it this way because it makes us accountable to you—not to some billionaire or corporation with their own agenda. We know that to keep operating, we have to fight and deliver for what you believe in.

That's why I am asking you to support progressive, independent news like Daily Kos with a donation of $5 or any amount that is meaningful to you.

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Thank you for all you do,
Amanda McKay, Daily Kos

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