In August of 2020—just weeks before the U.S. presidential election—something very strange happened to our website traffic.
From record levels of readers and soaring page views, we woke up one morning to find traffic had fallen off a cliff—or had been pushed. In June of 2021, after we had clawed back some ground, it happened again. Wham!—off another cliff.
We’re journalists, not conspiracy theorists, but there was no good explanation from powerful corporate gatekeepers like Google or Facebook and no clear solution. Diminished traffic means fewer readers, and for this people-powered model, that means we have less resources to fund this work.
Algorithm changes and for-profit incentives that prioritize ad-driven news outlets make independent media expendable to these Big Tech giants. They don’t care if we live or die—but we know that you do.
Right now, we are in the midst of a major website overhaul that we believe will provide smarter and more powerful tools to fight back against these behemoths. We will increase our traffic and reach and make it clear that independent media will not be bullied or squeezed out of the news landscape.
