Major State News Network Joins the OptOut Independent Media Project
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2022
CONTACT: press@optout.news, (917) 974-4383
Brooklyn, N.Y. — A nonprofit charity that employs more than 130 full-time editors, reporters, and support staff in 26 states across the country has joined the news aggregation app OptOut News.
States Newsroom’s 26 affiliated and partner outlets fill a void in our news ecosystem by reporting from their state capitals. The project is funded exclusively by contributions from readers and philanthropists, and it is committed to supporting fact-based, non-partisan news to the public, ad-free and at no cost.
The OptOut app and newsletter are now distributing content from the State Newsroom outlets.
Founded by reporters Alex Kotch and Walker Bragman in August 2020, nonprofit charity and tech startup the OptOut Media Foundation worked with the Progressive Coders Network to develop a sophisticated news aggregation app that distributes articles, podcasts, and videos from a network of 150 financially independent media outlets. The app is now available for iOS devices and will soon be available for Android devices.
“We are thrilled to welcome States Newsroom’s outlets to the OptOut network,” said Alex Kotch, co-founder and executive director of the OptOut Media Foundation. “As big corporations and financial firms gobble up media organizations around the U.S. while social media giants and search engines monopolize ad revenue, state and local outlets are most at risk.
“Publications such as Arizona Mirror, Michigan Advance, and Virginia Mercury produce important state policy news without the corporate bias or conflicts of interest that plague much of our media. These newsrooms are just what we need to expand the OptOut network and accurately inform news consumers around the U.S. We hope our efforts will increase these outlets’ distribution and impact.”
Participating outlets are selected for the app based on financial independence, editorial focus, and other standards. The newsrooms range from small Substack newsletters to independent media pillars such as The American Prospect, In These Times, and Jacobin, podcasts including Citations Needed and Means Morning News, and video channels such as Democracy at Work, The Humanist Report, and Tim Black TV. OptOut is focused on promoting ethical media that report on the issues that truly matter in people’s lives, with a special emphasis on outlets led by people from traditionally marginalized communities.
The OptOut Media Foundation is funded exclusively by individual donations and grants. The nonprofit recently secured a three-year, $150,000 commitment from Scott Satterwhite.
“It’s difficult for independent news outlets to cut through the corporate media narratives that dominate our discourse,” said Kotch. “But together, with our many outlets and growing audience, we will change the national conversation.”
Kotch and the OptOut team are available for interviews.
Watch a short feature on OptOut from network outlet The Rational National.
The OptOut Media Foundation (EIN: 85-2348079) is a nonprofit charity with a mission to educate the public about current events and help sustain a diverse media ecosystem by promoting and assisting independent news outlets and, in doing so, advance democracy and social justice.
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Progressive Coders Network is a 501(c)(3) community of activists who build open source tools to empower the grassroots, get money out of politics, and dismantle systems of oppression.