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Today is an extremely difficult day, the worst day—and I’m heart-broken and devastated. We learned this morning, without any warning, that our primary funder is cutting off all charitable giving and that our board is shutting down @PacificStand, effective next Friday.
@PacificStand I’m feeling all of the emotions about this terrible news. Anger and frustration, certainly—we were repeatedly and enthusiastically told we were over-performing and -delivering up until the very end, and that we had a long-term commitment—shock, sadness and disappointment.
@PacificStand I’m scared, about my future and this industry, and upset that I won’t get to keep working with the 20-plus extremely talented journalists I’ve had the privilege and opportunity to hire and coach and mentor and learn from since I took on the EIC role four years ago. Hire them!
@PacificStand But I’m also really proud of what we’ve accomplished. My primary goal when I joined @PacificStand back in 2013 was to do the journalism worth doing, and to prove that you could find an active, engaged, thoughtful audience for it. By that measure, we’ve succeeded spectacularly.
@PacificStand I’ve been here nearly 6 1/2 years now. In that time, this team has changed policy and changed minds, influenced educators and saved lives—literally. That’s not an overstatement or bloated mission speak; it’s the power of storytelling and reporting done in the public interest.
@PacificStand We’ve published 20,929 articles, working with a diverse army of 2,729 freelance writers and reporters (that’s about 31 million words), and commissioned thousands of illustrations and photographs (some of which won us our second National Magazine Award).
@PacificStand We reached tens of millions of people every year; produced podcasts and nearly 50 stunning print magazines; hosted events and panels and dinners to encourage industry collaboration; and partnered with dozens of others to promote and support their reporting efforts; and lots more.
@PacificStand We sent reporters to Afghanistan and the Maldives, to the Gulf of California and an abandoned zoo in Buenos Aires. We’ve reported from all 50 states, the U.S. territories, and opened a second office in Washington, D.C., to report on the biggest social justice stories of our time.
@PacificStand And we did all of this while promoting transparency, and investing heavily in fact-checking, copy-editing, legal review, proofreading, and a fellowship program to support early career journalists—all of the expensive things that are often the first to go we held on ’til the end.
@PacificStand Even though we’re leaving, there’s still a pressing need for the kind of work @PacificStand produces—non-partisan, science-informed reporting on social and environmental justice. I hope some of what we’ve done has touched you, and influenced others who continue where we can’t.
@PacificStand To everyone who has read or subscribed or shared, to everyone who has supported us along the way, thank you—really, genuinely, truly. Thank you. It has meant the world to us, and encouraged us to keep going when times were tough. We’ll need you again wherever we all end up.
