Supporting Independence
Aemula Writer Spotlight - 10.3.24
To break from routine, rather than spotlighting three separate writers this week, we will be focusing on three themes from Taylor Lorenz’s recent announcement that she is going independent.
Taylor has been a staple of online culture and tech journalism for the past 15 years, starting out as an independent blogger in 2009. Since then, her writing has been featured in a number of top media outlets, and her multimedia content, including her Power User podcast, has found success across social media. She has worked as a reporter for The New York Times and The Atlantic, built a following of 38k+ subscribers on Substack, and published a bestselling book, Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet. Most recently, she was a staff columnist at The Washington Post before making the announcement this week that she will be starting her own independent media outlet, User Magazine.
While her success is undeniable, her opinionated reporting at the divide between legacy media and online culture has been met with its fair share of controversy. No matter your alignment with her beliefs, her extensive inside knowledge of the media industry offers us valuable insights. In explaining her decision to go fully independent, she sheds light on the difficulties faced by every writer attempting to successfully compete in this industry alone.
On our mission to support journalists’ ability to maintain their independence, we want to share a few excerpts from Taylor’s announcement to provide concrete examples of the problems we are working to solve.
By addressing the challenges of bias, support, and ownership, we aim to cultivate a media landscape that truly reflects the diversity and richness of human experience.
Bias
“I also firmly believe that the era of faux neutrality—the “view from nowhere” style of journalism—is over. I will always be upfront and honest about my perspectives and where I’m coming from. Sometimes you might disagree with me, or I might be wrong(!), and I’d rather hear that than pretend I’m not a human being with opinions. This transparency is, to me, the essence of trust in journalism.”
Instead of trying to remove bias from media, we should encourage talented writers to share their true beliefs. This freedom of expression leads to more compelling pieces that highlight the nuance of each unique situation.
To mitigate the risks of media bias, we need to allow everyone access to the full diversity of perspectives and embrace exposure to new information over time. In many cases, the truth is not some measurable absolute, but a collection of the knowledge we all bring from our direct experiences.
By supporting the ability for individuals to speak independently, we hope to be able to observe these truths in a higher resolution.
Support
“Unfortunately, I am not independently wealthy. I have rent to pay, living expenses, and significant medical costs. I am also incurring significant costs associated with operating independently including business and software fees, paying for things like design work, editing support, subscriptions to research materials, internet costs, equipment, and more. I have zero investors or corporate backing.”
The vast majority of writers do not have the financial means necessary to take the leap of faith of starting their own publication. Many journalists cannot afford to take the risk of giving up stable income at a traditional media outlet in the hopes of being able to build a large enough paid audience on their own.
Despite these risks, tens of thousands of writers choose to operate independently to ensure they maintain full control and ownership over their work, leaving them to solve the difficult tasks of building an audience, managing a business, and strategizing distribution on their own.
Aemula’s platform provides support systems to empower writers with vital resources and stability of income so they can focus on the actual writing.
Ownership
“The journalists I’m most inspired by today are those who have taken their voices back into their own hands— independent content creators who challenge powerful institutions and carve out their own space in a crowded media landscape.
By going independent, I hope to do more of what I love: helping people understand the world around them, inspiring them to build a better internet, holding power to account, and honestly, having a lot more fun!!
I want to do all of this without worrying about some corporate overlord and without the constraints of institutions that, at times, are more concerned with optics than with challenging power.”
As we discussed last week, 65% of American journalists believe that they don’t have freedom in selecting which stories they get to write. It comes as no surprise to learn that the quality of writing increases when the author is more passionate about the subject matter.
Writing is an intensely creative activity, making it difficult for journalists to find long-term success when they are forced to cover topics that don’t completely align with their personal interests or beliefs. Authors who are able write from their own inspiration can create higher-quality, more engaging content, which is an invaluable benefit in elevating everyone’s access to information.
In an era when many writers have become disillusioned in traditional reporting jobs, we must provide an alternative platform that allows these journalists to take back control and ownership over their work.
If you want to support any of these writers, we highly encourage you to subscribe to their individual publications. If you want to support independent journalism more broadly, we offer both paid and free subscriptions for you to stay informed!
All subscription revenue is reinvested directly into the independent journalism community.
Follow us on X to stay up-to-speed on our progress towards launching the Aemula platform.
We would love to hear your thoughts on our mission in the comments!
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