A Personal Note from Jordan

My ask to you: read this in full and decide if REAL independent on-the-ground journalism is worth saving...

I firmly believe most people in America—across political lines—are not lacking compassion…most people have no fu*king idea what the hell is going on all around them. Let’s wake up the masses and do real justice journalism.

Hey folks, it’s Jordan.

I thought long and hard about writing this. After all, I try and avoid putting the spotlight on myself or complaining. After all, my struggles pale in comparison to the the folks I meet on the road. A las, I decided it was time to open up to you, as if I’m not honest with you, you won’t know what’s going on. I know you're all busy, but I ask you to read this full email.

To be direct: without growing Status Coup’s paid membership base SUBSTANTIALLY, my current pace of reporting and output—and therefore our output—is not sustainable. To be even more direct: I NEED HELP AND THE FUNDS TO HIRE MORE PEOPLE. Without it, Status Coup can no longer serve in its current capacity as the LEADING INDEPENDENT OUTLET consistently in-the-trenches, on-the-ground across America covering what 99% of other outlets ignore.

Before I go further, let me take you under the hood of independent media, and us, so you get a sense of where I am currently. Most other independent outlets start out, or acquire substantial investors and/or donors, that allow them to hire a team of, at minimum, 10-20 staff members.

We currently have 3.

Through my research and sources inside the business, most other independent outlets—with an actual staff—received initial investments of between $500,000 and $1 million dollars (or received substantial help from family members). I am sure you’re not surprised to learn…we had no such luck (most investors sadly don’t want to support this kind of reporting).

As such, those outlets had enough staff to perform the variety of daily functions of a media outlet. Those include:

1. Reporting and research (a full time job in itself if you’re an actual investigative reporter, including hours on the phone with sources, digging through documents, digging through the Internet, etc)

2. Recording videos for YouTube, Twitter, etc (most similar outlets seek to record and put out 5-10 videos per day)

3. Editing videos for YouTube, Twitter, etc (which involves editing, inserting graphics, adding subtitles & captions, etc)

4. Producing segments (a full time job in itself entailing finding/inserting soundbites, articles, graphics, headlines, SEO)

5. Hosting livestreams (which entails researching topics & producing segments for those livestreams)

6. Booking guests for interviews and handling logistics

7. Doing social media posts

8. Writing & sending out emails to followers (which include content emails, marketing emails, and fundraising emails)

9. Soliciting story pitches/vetting those pitches (and then reaching out to sources on stories you pursue)

10. Handling behind-the-scenes business stuff (taxes, scheduling, payroll, licensing footage to media companies, dealing with vendors, and a variety of other daily and weekly things that pop up)

And unlike 99 percent of other independent outlets, we have several MAJOR ADDITIONAL functions/tasks they don’t:

11. ON-THE-GROUND: Planning and executing weeklong on-the-ground reporting trips—which entails researching stories, finding folks to interview, booking those folks, handling A LOT of logistics, and doing the social media marketing and promotion of these trips in real-time (usually from the passenger seat on long drive to the next city)

12. ON-THE-GROUND: After these reporting trips, going through all of the footage and interviews and producing long-form and short-form videos (which entails a lot of production)

13. ON-THE-GROUND: Follow-up investigative reporting based on new leads I get on these trips (for example, I currently have hours of damning audio to go through that will expose EPA corruption).

14. Daily/Weekly: Soliciting story ideas from activists/community members across the country, vetting those stories, and then reaching out to those activists and community members (***your head would spin if you saw the amount of phone calls I get & texts, emails, Facebook and Instagram messages I have on a daily basis from people across the country***).

15. Daily/Weekly: Responding to breaking news and/or ignored stories we are known for covering—i.e. new developments in the Flint water crisis, East Palestine train derailment/detonation, recent Georgia chemical fire and chlorine gas bomb, Kalamazoo air poisoning, West Virginia water crisis, new worker strikes, etc. This involves me receiving calls/texts from activists and community members 24/7 at night, on weekends, and pretty much all the time.

If you are exhausted reading this list, just imagine how I feel!

Simply put, for years, I have been doing the majority of these 15 tasks when it comes to the journalism, reporting, research, writing, producing, booking, and behind-the-scenes business stuff; meanwhile, Colin Tooley has been doing the editing, graphics, back-end technological stuff, and way more business administration stuff and logistics than he should have to deal with (and Jon Farina has been our go-to cameraman on-the-scene).

TRANSLATED: 2 people have been doing the job that really requires 7-10 full-time staff.

TO BE CLEAR: I have had the opportunity to take shortcuts and/or sign on with an investor that would have provided us the necessary funding to lighten the load and hire more people. I chose not to pursue those opportunities because that funding would have likely come with strings attached from sources that didn’t fully align with my values. TRANSLATED: I didn’t sell out and continued to do this the right—but much harder—way.

A las, I have juggled all of this for as long as I can without physically and mentally breaking down—but one can only work 16 hours a day, 6-7 days a week for so long before burning out. And I have officially reached that point of burn out. I simply can’t continue at this pace without—at minimum—the ability to hire:

• An experienced reporter

• An experienced producer

• Assistant/Business administrative person

Bottomline: we need to grow SUBSTANTIALLY in terms of paid members (as well as donations). Ideally, over the next few months, we need to grow between 500 and 1,000 paid members to increase our recurring monthly revenue so I have the funds to hire this urgently needed help. If that doesn’t happen, I am not going to sugar coat it: I will likely have to make cuts and our output will slow down in terms of the amount of on-the-ground and investigative reporting we’re able to do. Of course, I do not want that to happen.

So I simply ask you. If you are a viewer and consumer of Status Coup reading this that has not yet signed up as a paying member, is $5-10 dollars a month worth it to you to help keep alive the ONLY INDEPENDENT OUTLET IN AMERICA ROUTINELY ON-THE-GROUND covering the stories the corporate media covers up?

My direct ask to you: I need everyone reading this who is financially able to do so to sign up as a paying monthly Status Coup member for as low as $5 bucks a month. If we can grow our membership by 500-1000 members over the next several months, we will be in much better shape to hire urgently needed help.

My second direct ask to you: if you are able to make a one-time, or set a recurring donation, to help us grow the funding to make these important hires, please donate.

My third direct ask to you: spread the word to your friends, family, and neighbors to check out Status Coup and support us financially if they care about keeping a spotlight on the stories that MATTER—the kind corporate media buries.

****If you are someone reading this who has ideas or connections for us to draw larger funding—from sources aligned with our vision and values—feel free to reach out to me directly at JordanChariton@StatusCoup.com (please do not email for for other reasons as my email inbox is already flooded!)***

Over the coming days, weeks, and months, we will pushing even harder as part of a new member campaign to sign up new members. This will include more emails, more videos, and more pushing on our livestream (if we don’t push, who is going to?)

I thank you for reading this in full—and I thank you for helping to keep Status Coup sustainable and alive.

Jordan