About COURIER
Our Mission
COURIER is a pro-democracy news network that builds a more informed, engaged, and representative America by reaching audiences where they are online with factual, values-driven news and analysis.
COURIER’s local newsrooms provide Americans with news centered on the people and policies affecting their lives. Our reporting is primarily produced for the social media platforms and online channels our audiences spend their time on, with an emphasis on video, graphics, and skimmable newsletters to inform and engage our audiences in the ways they consume information today. Meet our leadership team.
It would be good to see more news organizations producing factual news from a variety of viewpoints, including from the left. As I said, objectivity is a myth. Journalists can lead with their values and still remain faithful to facts. A few organizations are doing that, such as COURIER.Mark Jacob, former Sunday editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and former metro editor at the Chicago Tribune
Values-Driven Journalism
We hold a set of values that guide our reporting on the issues most important to the communities we serve:
- Our reporting will be rooted in facts, science, and the communities our newsrooms serve.
- We will strive to tell the truth and will tell you when we get it wrong.
- We will be intentional about centering the voices of the people in our communities, using our platforms to amplify their experiences, especially those who are most impacted by the issues being decided in their statehouses and in Washington.
- As a civic news organization, our journalists will focus their reporting around efforts to strengthen communities, rebuild struggling economies, expand access to health care and child care, address the climate crisis, and reduce inequality in all forms—and covering the leaders championing those efforts. We will relentlessly cover attempts or actions to undermine democratic institutions and we will make a special effort to report on actors who are advancing those efforts.
- We will never manufacture “both sides” to our stories, giving equal weight to conspiracy theories or junk science. We will always provide proper context in our reporting to help ensure we don’t continue the spread of misinformation or disinformation.
- We will be committed to holding accountable elected officials or politicians who betray our values, cause harm, or seek to cause harm to the communities we serve.
- We will publish our work where our audiences are: When they move to new platforms or technologies, our brands and journalists will follow.
- We will prioritize hiring and contracting staff who live in the communities we serve, and we will remain committed to sourcing our stories with the people who reflect the diverse and inclusive country in which we reside.
Social-First Reporting
While many media companies publish web content placed behind paywalls, COURIER takes a different approach. We're reaching our audiences where they spend their time - on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
Most Americans don't pay for news, or actively seek out news content on the web. That's why much of COURIER's reporting is packaged in short-form video, swipable graphics, and skimmable headlines and is published directly on social-media accounts across our network.
In 2022, WIRED Magazine referred to COURIER as "a media powerhouse for the Left."
Our Funding Model
COURIER is a public benefit corporation owned by Good Information Inc., and supported by a variety of funding sources, including reader contributions, sponsors, and philanthropic and corporate underwriting.
Good Information Inc.’s investors include: Vero Media Investments, Incite Labs Inc., Technology for Democracy, and the Kenneth & Jennifer Duda Living Trust.
Our philanthropic underwriting program is powered by mission and values-aligned individuals, nonprofit organizations, and advocacy groups, including those working to protect and advance reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ equality, climate and conservation, gun control, workers’ rights, voting rights, and democracy issues.
Editorial independence is a core tenet of our work and we maintain an editorial firewall between our funding sources and newsrooms that ensures the integrity of our journalism.
Our aim is to build a better information ecosystem online that values truth over clicks and democracy over profit margins and our diversified funding model and community reflects that.
COURIER is supported by over 6,000 individual supporters across all 50 states.
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