Defector
Born from the Deadspin walkout
After private equity owners fired their deputy editor and demanded the staff "stick to sports," the entire Deadspin editorial team resigned in solidarity. They rebuilt as a worker cooperative — 100% employee-owned, subscription-funded, and profitable. Tens of thousands of paid subscribers and about $4.6 million in annual revenue (2023–24) prove the model works.
Sports
Culture
Politics
Podcasts
Flaming Hydra
A cooperative of 60+ writers & artists
An ambitious expansion of the Brick House cooperative, Flaming Hydra unites more than 60 writers and artists who each contribute one original piece per month in exchange for an equal share of subscription revenue. No ads, no investors, no algorithms — just a captivating daily newsletter at $3/month. Contributors span The New Yorker, The Nation, and beyond.
Essays
Comics
Literature
Criticism
404 Media
Former Vice / Motherboard journalists
Four former Motherboard editors and writers launched 404 Media three months after Vice filed for bankruptcy. Reporter-owned and consensus-driven, they cover AI, hacking, privacy, and the intersection of technology and society. Won the EFF Award for Fearless Journalism in 2024 and reported a profitable, sustainable business within their first year.
Tech
AI
Privacy
Hacking
Hell Gate
Independent NYC local journalism
Named after the Hell Gate Bridge for its tenacity, this worker-owned outlet covers New York City with the kind of sharp, irreverent local reporting that's vanishing everywhere else. Five reporters and two editors, all co-owners. By fall 2025 they had about 9,000 paid subscribers bringing in roughly $70,000 a month — two-thirds of revenue — against about $81,000 in monthly costs, with the rest covered by events, merch, and other income.
NYC
Local News
Politics
Culture
Aftermath
Former Kotaku staff reclaim games journalism
Launched in November 2023 by five co-founders — Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, Riley MacLeod, Luke Plunkett, and Chris Person — most of them Kotaku alumni who had also worked at Motherboard, The Verge, and The Washington Post's Launcher. Aftermath is a worker-owned, subscription-funded site covering video games, the games industry, internet culture, and the labor issues around them.
Gaming
Internet Culture
Tech
Racket
Twin Cities alternative journalism
Founded in August 2021 by four former City Pages editors — Jessica Armbruster, Jay Boller, Em Cassel, and Keith Harris — after the Star Tribune closed the alt-weekly in 2020, Racket is writer-owned and reader-funded, delivering news, arts, and culture coverage for Minneapolis–St. Paul. They carry forward the spirit of alternative journalism in the Twin Cities with sharp local reporting, cultural coverage, and their signature daily Flyover news roundup.
Twin Cities
Local News
Arts
Culture
The Colorado Sun
Journalists who left the hedge-fund-owned Denver Post
When Alden Global Capital gutted the Denver Post, ten veteran journalists quit to launch the Colorado Sun — now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit newsroom with a democratic governance structure resembling a co-op. Award-winning coverage of Colorado politics, water, climate, and community news, funded by memberships, sponsorships, and grants.
Colorado
Local News
Nonprofit
Investigations
The 51st
Former DCist and WAMU journalists
When WAMU abruptly shut down the DCist website in February 2024, laying off 16 journalists, six former staffers launched The 51st — a worker-led nonprofit covering Washington, D.C. local news. Workers make up the board, and the nonprofit structure allows them to raise funds through tax-deductible donations while retaining full editorial control. A crowdfunding campaign raised over $275,000 from 3,500 local donors.
Washington DC
Local News
Nonprofit
Discourse Blog
Former Splinter / Gawker writers
When G/O Media's private equity owners shut down Splinter, its writers channeled their outrage into Discourse Blog — a worker-owned publication covering politics, culture, and media with the sharp, irreverent voice that corporate ownership tried to kill. Reader-supported with no ads and no outside investors.
Politics
Culture
Media
Long Beach Watchdog
Fired for unionizing, came back stronger
Nine journalists were laid off just four days after their unionization attempt at a Long Beach nonprofit news outlet. Together with three colleagues who struck in solidarity, they founded the Long Beach Watchdog — a worker cooperative run democratically by the people doing the journalism.
Long Beach
Local News
Labor
Hearing Things
Former Pitchfork staff rebuild music journalism
When Condé Nast gutted Pitchfork and folded it into GQ, five laid-off staffers launched Hearing Things in October 2024. Initially half-owned by an outside backer, it has since become 100% worker-owned; they publish curated album and song reviews, investigative reporting, and artist features — an antidote to algorithmic music consumption.
Music
Culture
Reviews
RANGE Media
Worker-owned civic journalism for the Inland Northwest
Owned by the Spokane Workers Cooperative, RANGE covers the Inland Northwest with investigative reporting that centers the perspectives of marginalized communities. Founded as a pandemic-era podcast, it grew into a full newsroom focused on how policy impacts ordinary people — journalism that helps people understand their power.
Spokane
Local News
Investigations
Civics
Block Club Chicago
Journalist-founded nonprofit after DNAinfo shutdown
When billionaire Joe Ricketts abruptly shuttered DNAinfo, three veteran Chicago editors launched Block Club Chicago with a record-setting Kickstarter campaign. Now a nonprofit newsroom, they embed reporters directly in Chicago's neighborhoods, combining old-school shoe-leather reporting with a commitment to putting residents at the center of every story.
Chicago
Local News
Neighborhoods
Nonprofit
Pop Heist
Worker-owned entertainment journalism, ad-free
A worker-owned entertainment publication that describes itself as "stealing pop culture back from the algorithm." Pop Heist covers TV, film, games, comics, and pop culture with the conviction that corporate interests and the algorithm have ruined entertainment journalism. Fully subscription-supported with no ads, delivering coverage that serves readers rather than advertisers.
Entertainment
Movies
TV
Pop Culture
The Appeal
Staff unionized; management shut it down; workers relaunched it
The Appeal covers criminal justice, policing, and the legal system with a focus on systemic reform. In spring 2021, weeks after staff unionized, management announced it would close the publication. The staff instead raised money and relaunched The Appeal as an independent, worker-led nonprofit — one of the first in the country. With the Reynolds Journalism Institute it later published the Care & Collaboration Toolkit, a guide for other newsrooms adopting democratic, worker-led structures.
Criminal Justice
Policy
Investigations
The Flytrap
Worker-owned intersectional feminist media
Launched on Election Day 2024 after Jezebel's shutdown, The Flytrap is a worker-owned collective of 10 writers and artists delivering intersectional feminist cultural criticism, reporting, and analysis. Funded by a Kickstarter that raised nearly $57,000, they set out to revive the tradition of feminist blogging lost with the closures of Bitch Media and The Toast. Their motto: "Fuck the algorithm."
Feminism
Culture
Politics
Criticism
Documented
Nonprofit newsroom for NYC's immigrant communities
An independent nonprofit newsroom that doesn't just report about immigrants — it reports for them. Founded in 2018 by reporters Mazin Sidahmed and Max Siegelbaum, Documented publishes in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Haitian Creole and meets readers where they already are — WhatsApp for Spanish speakers, WeChat for Chinese speakers, and Nextdoor for Caribbean communities. Alongside reporting, it maintains practical resource guides on housing, food, work, and legal rights.
NYC
Immigration
Multilingual
Nonprofit
COYOTE Media
Bay Area's first worker-owned newsroom
Eleven veteran Bay Area journalists — including former SF Chronicle critic Soleil Ho and novelist Daniel Lavery — banded together to revive the spirit of alt-weeklies. COYOTE is 100% worker-owned with zero venture capital; all 11 founders hold equal stakes and are paid at the same rate. A crowdfunding campaign that opened in June 2025 passed its $80,000 goal within a week and has raised more than $150,000. The site went live September 15, 2025 with narrative features, opinion, arts coverage, and an alt-weekly sense of humor, including a memorial page for the Bay Area's departed pets.
Bay Area
Local News
Arts
Culture
Pittsburgh Progress
Born from a three-year newspaper strike
When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's owners announced in January 2026 that they intended to close the paper — weeks after its unionized workers had won a strike lasting more than three years — the strikers and their community supporters built something new. The Progress launched July 27, 2026 as a cooperative owned by both its workers and its reader-members, who vote and sit on an elected board. Its mission: tell the stories of the region's working-class communities.
Pittsburgh
Local News
Labor
Reader-Owned
Rascal News
Worker-owned journalism for tabletop games
Co-founded by Lin Codega, Rowan Zeoli, and Chase Carter — writers known from Polygon, io9, and Dicebreaker — Rascal covers the tabletop roleplaying game industry and the people who make it. Reader-supported and worker-owned, it publishes deeply reported investigations, criticism, and industry news for a hobby long served mostly by blogs and forums, with plans for a fellowship program for marginalized writers.
Tabletop
RPGs
Criticism
Industry