Just a few weeks ago, the president of the United States suggested injecting disinfectant into our bodies as a way to kill the coronavirus. Not long after that, he blamed China for creating the virus in a lab, effectively accusing it of a global war crime – without a shred of evidence.
When the most powerful people in the world turn the news cycle into a constant source of misinformation, trustworthy journalism today is as important as it will ever be.
Independent, factual information could literally mean the difference between life and death.
We spoke of the importance of this kind of journalism when we asked you to join forces with us to launch The Correspondent on 30 September 2019. An astonishing 50,000 of you did.
Now, at this time of unprecedented challenge and change, our mission feels even more urgent.
Putting daily headlines in their appropriate context, factchecking misinformation and lies, and searching for solutions to our shared problems in collaboration with experts from all over the world – these are the reasons why we founded The Correspondent. It’s what we’ve been doing for the past six months, and what we hope to do for many years to come.
Thanks to the support of our members we can provide readers all over the world with a daily dose of “noise-cancelling news”, as it is lovingly nicknamed in our newsroom. That is, journalism that tunes out the ambient sensationalism that’s clamouring for your attention, and delivers the insights that matter.
Those insights take time and effort to uncover. Our journalism isn’t a firecracker that burns bright but quickly fizzles out. That’s why the long-term support of our members is so invaluable.
By renewing your membership today, you enable us to do the deep investigative, thoroughly researched work the world needs more than ever
By renewing your membership today, you enable us to do the deep investigative, thoroughly researched work the world needs more than ever. If you’ve already set your membership to recurring, we can’t thank you enough for your trust and commitment.
It’s that commitment that makes it possible for us to dig deeper, as we’re doing with Track(ed) Together – our cross-border, collaborative investigation into state and corporate surveillance prompted by the pandemic. Or with our Fixing the Future series, in which some of the greatest minds explore how to create a more just and sustainable world in the decade ahead.
And, of course, your continued commitment makes possible the in-depth work that our correspondents do every day as they tell vital, thought-provoking stories about climate change, mental health, the foundational years of our lives, the search for better ways of doing politics, and of addressing the things that make us different.
This is the kind of long-term journalism we want to continue to produce, with and for you.
Starting today, we are running a three-week renewal campaign, in which you can set your membership to a recurring annual fee of your choosing – you won’t be charged until your current membership ends, with the exception for payments via PayPal or iDeal. We’d love to see all of our 53,000 members (and counting!) commit to us for the long haul – and with this sprint our collective goal is to achieve 5,000 renewals.
As a thank you for your trust and commitment, we will pay it forward and give each member who renews a six-month free membership that you can gift to anyone you like!
Together, we can build a truly inclusive movement for unbreaking news.
On behalf of everyone at The Correspondent, thank you so much for making this possible.
Rob Wijnberg (founding editor) and Eliza Anyangwe (managing editor)