How a New Free Press Newsletter Puts the Public First

The way people get news and information is breaking down. Search is polluted, social feeds are unreliable and the public-interest perspective is vanishing from mainstream coverage.

For more than 20 years, Free Press has fought to create a media system that works for everyone. Now, with disinformation rampant and AI scrambling how people find trustworthy and accurate content, the stakes are higher than ever. That’s why we launched Pressing Issues, a twice-weekly Free Press newsletter built to cut through the noise, share urgent stories about media and tech, and create meaningful connections between journalists, advocates and communities who believe media should serve democracy, not destroy it.

Building a trusted and direct line to your inbox is just one way we strive to keep these types of relationships active and sustainable. We value and take this seriously here at Free Press.

When we did a soft launch in July, Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron explained why our approach matters: “So often in media coverage, the public-interest perspective is relegated to ‘the kicker’ — the last paragraph in the story that nobody reads. We’ll work to flip that approach.”

That’s the point of this newsletter: to put the public first.

The intersection of media, tech and democracy

The response to our soft launch has been fantastic. We are already seeing open rates that far exceed industry standards, at times reaching 70 percent. In other words, for every newsletter post we send out, seven out of 10 subscribers open it and read our work.

About 90 percent of our readers are in the United States, but the other 10 percent represent 45 countries around the world, with Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Portugal topping the list. Since July, we’ve published posts every Tuesday and Friday, and that consistency has helped us build momentum.

We’ve also seen encouraging signs on social media. One Instagram post promoting our piece on L.A. Taco’s coverage of ICE raids drew more than 2,700 likes and over 130 shares and reposts. It’s just one example of how the stories we publish are breaking through and reaching wider audiences.

Since our soft launch, the newsletter has already tackled urgent stories at the intersection of media, technology and democracy. We’ve pressed for answers about ICE targeting a longtime reporter in “Five Questions About Detained Journalist Mario Guevara”. We’ve exposed media consolidation in “Broadcasters Strike a Devil’s Bargain with the Trump Regime” and reflected on movement legacies in “What Bob McChesney Taught Me”. We’ve called out threats to equity and democracy in “The FCC Is Trying to Roll Back 60 Years of Civil Rights Protections” and “The Movement to Reinvent Public Media Is Already Underway”. And we’ve raised serious concerns about corporate media’s failures with “Paramount’s Bari Weiss Overture Signals a CBS News Pivot Toward Propaganda”.

As Craig wrote in July, “We’re driven by a belief that the media isn’t just something that happens to us. It’s something that we can and must shape and change to create a true multiracial democracy.”

Our formal launch — and what you can expect from us

Beginning Sept. 8, we’re formally launching Pressing Issues to a broader audience. The newsletter will complement everything else Free Press is doing: combating authoritarianism, fighting media consolidation, defending press freedom, protecting privacy and reimagining a democratic media system.

It will sit alongside all the ways Free Press already communicates with you — through our blog, on social media, in webinars and in the campaigns we create with supporters. It’s another tool to share stories and analysis that reflect our values and goals.

“The stakes have never been higher, and we hope you’ll keep reading, tell us when we’re right — and when we’re wrong — and help us remake and reimagine media and tech to serve all of us,” Craig said in that July post. 

Pressing Issues will build a community that refuses to accept a broken media system. We invite you to join us, share our stories and be part of shaping what comes next. 

Sign up for Pressing Issues — and donate to Free Press to help support our fight for media and tech that serve communities.