The staffers from the award-winning nonprofit newsroom, The 19th, visited USC Annenberg to present their documentary “Breaking the News.”
Annenberg’s media center director, Christina Bellantoni, moderated a panel that featured Emily Ramshaw, co-founder and CEO, Kate Sosin, LGBTQ+ reporter, Errin Haines, founding mother and editor at large for The 19th, and Chelsea Hernandez, “Breaking the News” co-director.
The startup is named after the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The asterisk in their logo commemorates all those perspectives that were still left out of this inclusion, including women of color, trans women and queer people.
Their mission statement echoes the idea that “The 19th Amendment remains unfinished business” and that suffrage is still very much a work in progress.
The documentary itself chronicles the efforts of the female and nonbinary journalists who founded The 19th and their journey to create a journalism “startup” based in Austin, TX. The founders decided to narrow their coverage to focus on those various perspectives historically left out of mainstream media.
The stories of their coverage of issues such as the Breonna Taylor case, the riots at the U.S. Capitol, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade are just a few of the ones that the film chose to highlight. The newsroom even got an exclusive interview with Vice President Kamala Harris after she noticed their top-level coverage.
During the panel moderated by Bellantoni, Haines offered her perspective on the film.
“Having seen the film several times, I still get emotional when I watch it – mainly because we were living this story,” she said. “We were building this newsroom over these three years that you all see in the film. We didn’t have time to be reflective or thoughtful about this journey.”
CEO Ramshaw provided some invaluable advice to the student journalists in attendance, specifically in regards to the fears that they might not find a job suitable to their passions.
“I think what was so special for The 19th is that we decided collectively that this industry hadn’t worked for us, and we were going to try to do it in a completely different way,” Ramshaw said. “For those of you who are embarking on journalism careers,’ I think you may find yourself being the start of something completely brand new from the ground floor.”
It didn’t come easy for The 19th and their founders though.
They were forced to navigate the difficult world of Covid, and still come out the other end successful. According to the founders, they were able to eventually raise more than $50 million in funding, have great benefits for their employees, and have been fortunate enough to not lay anybody off.
Haines stressed though that the work is still not done.
“We need you,” she said. “Please know that there is a tremendous opportunity. It is an existential time for so many of our fellow citizens, for your friends, family, and neighbors, who are living so many of the stories that we are covering. "