{"id":57385,"date":"2024-09-03T08:00:51","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/?p=57385"},"modified":"2024-09-05T09:52:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T17:52:55","slug":"our-reporting-is-now-free-for-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/civileats.com\/2024\/09\/03\/our-reporting-is-now-free-for-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Reporting Is Now Free for Everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/div>

When Civil Eats launched in 2009, no major media outlets focused on the relationship between food and other significant social and political issues. For the past 15 years, we have led the charge in creating robust conversations around food and farming, and worked to make complicated, underreported stories more accessible to a mainstream audience.<\/p><\/div>

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In that time, our stories have had significant impact and reach, thanks in part to support from our readers and donors. We raised an unprecedented $100,000 via Kickstarter<\/a> in 2013; we were named Publication of the Year<\/a> in 2014 by the prestigious James Beard Foundation; we were inducted into the Library of Congress<\/a> in 2019; we won a 2022 IACP Award for best newsletter<\/a> for our members-only monthly column, The Deep Dish, which also won best newsletter<\/a> from the Online News Association in 2024; we were awarded<\/a> a James Beard Foundation Media Award for our 2022 investigative series on animal agriculture workers, Injured and Invisible<\/a>; and we were nominated for best micro newsroom by the Online News Association twice, in 2023<\/a> and 2024<\/a>. Here<\/a> is a list of our many other awards and recognitions.<\/p>\n

In order to make it all work, in 2015, we put up a paywall\u2014like many independent nonprofit news organizations have done. Readers could access a small number of articles for free, and they could pay to become a Civil Eats member and get full access to our reporting. Our members care about independent food systems news, and the membership program has been critical in supporting our work as a small, nonprofit newsroom.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve always wanted to remove our paywall in order to make our journalism free and accessible to everyone. And in our surveys, we heard that sentiment from members, too. Because the membership program provided a significant amount of our budget, removing the paywall has been a constant concern. Until now.<\/p>\n

We are thrilled to announce that, in honor of our 15th anniversary, two generous funders, the 11th Hour Project, a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation, and GRACE Communications Foundation, have provided us funding to help us remove our paywall for one year. Our reporting will now be free to everyone, everywhere.<\/p>\n

But we will still need your support! In order to keep our paywall down, we\u2019re launching a membership drive to keep the site free, open, and accessible to all beyond this first year.<\/p>\n

Without you, Civil Eats\u2019 stories don\u2019t just go unread\u2014they go untold. Become a member<\/a> today by making a contribution to ensure our vital reporting continues and thrives.<\/p>\n

Membership Has Its Benefits.<\/b><\/p>\n

Join the thousands of members who are driving systemic change in the food and farming\u00a0 landscape and receive benefits like:<\/p>\n