In the span of five short years, The 19th has grown from a start-up newsroom to a trusted national voice at the intersection of gender, politics, policy and power. We’ve built one of the most diverse and equity-centered teams in journalism. And we’ve done it with an unwavering commitment to the people our industry has too often overlooked.
As we move from our founding phase into one focused on long-term sustainability and service, we’re excited to share what’s next: a three-year strategic plan grounded in seven key initiatives that will guide The 19th through this next chapter.
At the heart of this plan is a renewed commitment to our core: gender and its many intersections — with race, ethnicity, class, disability.
The 19th’s mission is to produce trustworthy, representative journalism that serves women and LGBTQ+ people in the United States who are excluded from the promise of the 19th Amendment by their gender, race, ethnicity, class or disability.
Strategic initiatives
The 19th developed seven key initiatives to guide our priorities for the next three years. The initiatives are our north stars for how we’ll achieve our mission together while ensuring the sustainability of our organization:
- Launch a campaign that communicates our three-year vision.
- Double our annual Total Journalism Reach.
- Increase our subscribers by 2.5 times.
- Raise $30 million through our first-ever endowment campaign.
- Align our department structures and priorities with our strategic plan.
- Strengthen our operational resiliency to support staff, manage growth and hold space for change.
- Plan for the protection and preservation of The 19th.
Launch a campaign that communicates our three-year vision.
We’ll re-introduce our audiences, our staff, our partners and our funders to the history of the 19th Amendment, to the significance of the asterisk in our logo and our storytelling, and to our own founding story and evolution around race, gender identity and independence.
This includes explaining our plans publicly over a series of articles, newsletters and social media posts and hosting an internal speaker series for our staff to learn critical perspectives and skills from leaders in journalism and gender and racial equity.
Double our annual Total Journalism Reach.
We’ll achieve this increase by expanding our national reach and readership, while continuing to center our communities in our journalism and products.
Look for more short-form video storytelling to best serve our readers with news on social media, an expansion of our marketing and communications efforts to increase our influence on the national conversation and partnerships with independent creators to directly provide our reporting to more of the people who need it most.
Increase our subscribers by 2.5 times.
By building community around our audiences’ shared experiences, we will cultivate and expand our newsletter subscribers, recurring audience and membership program without relying on third-party platforms.
We’ll launch topical newsletters that speak directly to our audiences’ experiences, research how we might use text messaging to be in conversation with our communities and build up our volunteer member program so that more people can contribute to The 19th’s work.
Raise $30 million through our first-ever endowment campaign.
Since launching this campaign in January, we’ve made remarkable progress toward our goal of creating a lasting safety net in an unstable media environment.
The endowment will provide a dependable new revenue stream, easing long-term reliance on philanthropy and ensuring The 19th can thrive for decades to come.
Align our department structures and priorities with our strategic plan.
We will reimagine how we work together — including how our teams are set up, what topics we cover, what platforms we publish on and what work we prioritize — in order to best serve our audiences.
You may have already seen increased coverage of health, immigration, sports and more. We’ll publish more reporting that centers people who have been historically marginalized in our democracy while helping them to navigate this complex moment. And we will hire new roles to set us up for success in executing this plan.
Strengthen our operational resiliency to support staff, manage growth and hold space for change.
By explicitly naming how we do our work and care for our people, we aim to reduce staff burnout, establish shared ways of working, and redirect energy and resources toward achieving our ambitious goals.
A few internal projects include updating our organizational values, establishing professional development plans for all staff and solidifying our employee value proposition.
Plan for the protection and preservation of The 19th.
We’re building the systems and safeguards needed to protect our newsroom and ensure we can keep showing up for our audiences, no matter what challenges arise. That means preparing for growing risks independent media faces, including legal threats, security breaches and platform instability.
We’re undergoing various security trainings for all staff and conducting regular scenario planning and risk assessments, among other measures.
How we got here
This plan is the result of a year-long process that included every corner of our community — our staff, our board, our readers, our partners and stakeholders. It’s rooted in deep listening and shared values. And it’s designed to help us become more nimble, more adaptable and more responsive to our readers’ needs — amid a volatile political environment and unprecedented media disruption.
How you can help
As The 19th adapts and evolves, we’ll keep showing up in the way you’ve told us you need us to: as your relatable guide to an unequal nation. We’ll continue to report fearlessly on the forces shaping our democracy. And we’ll keep designing products and experiences that help you make sense of it all.
We can’t do this work without you. To learn more or make a gift in support of The 19th, email our development team at [email protected] or explore ways to give on our website.