PITTSBURGH, PA. - This month marked the 10th anniversary of Payday Report, the crowdfunded-publication I founded in 2016 with my NLRB settlement for being illegally fired during the union drive at POLITICO.
Since then, we have published over 1,500 articles, been nominated for an Emmy for our work with CNN, and been credited in a front-page story in The Washington Post for redefining how non-traditional strikes are tracked. We were also among the few American publications to cover Brazilian President Lula’s journey from São Bernardo do Campo to the White House.
Payday Report is one of the few labor news outlets connecting local and international struggles. But now, all of this is at risk.
Earlier this year we learned that the Illumine Service Foundation, which had helped fund us for three years, will no longer renew our grant because of the Trump cuts. This support accounted for approximately a third of our approximately $100,000-a-year budget, which covers my salary, part-time editors, healthcare, and travel costs.
According to their Executive Director, priority was shifted to direct service groups, helping after-school programs, food banks, and community organizations—but reducing support for us.
As a result, Payday Report lost ⅓ of our funding, but we have a plan to restore our funding base. When Twitter collapsed, we lost over 25,000 Twitter followers and a crucial crowdfunding base. This hurt Payday dearly, but we’ve rebuilt our social media presence after leaving Twitter, with our following on Bluesky growing rapidly (gaining 5,000 members in one year) and our YouTube reach expanding (over 150,000 views).
Ultimately, we need seed money for our part-time community engagement editor, Amos Wolf, to expand our social media and fundraising reach. Increasing the social media and reader reach of Payday Report is long, slow, labor-intensive work.
The first thing we are going to do is ask folks to donate to help us build a $20,000 fund so we can build our new program to train unions and community groups in how to build their own media.
Donate to Keep Labor Reporting Alive
Media Trainings for Unions & Community Groups
To expand the independent labor media movement, we have developed a five-page media training curriculum to teach rank-and-file union members and activists how to produce their own newsletters and media projects, building the strength of worker-centric media. We have already begun working with immigrant rights and labor groups to explore how they can shake up the media system.
As mainstream media continues to crumble, we’ve heard from a wide variety of groups, including unions, community groups, and other organizations, who want to learn how to create their own newsletters and media projects, as well as how to interact with the media more effectively.
For a small sliding-scale fee, we’ll offer these media training sessions for unions and community groups who want to learn how to navigate the rapidly changing media landscape, including legacy media, independent media, nonprofit newsrooms, and social media creators.
Funds raised from these workshops will help sustain our core operations as we share our expertise and strengthen connections within a growing independent labor media movement. We will also come out to your community and do labor reporting on undercovered subjects while we are there. (Our rates are sliding scale and we love when union members host us in their homes!!!)
Check out our 5-page media training curriculum, and if you’re interested in hiring us for a small sliding-scale fee, please fill out the attached form to get started.
(Any questions about our media trainings, feel free to email me at melk@paydayreport.com)
As an Emmy-nominated labor reporter with 20 years of experience working in some of the biggest outlets in the country, including POLITICO, The Guardian, and CNN, I know how editors and reporters think about stories and how unions can build effective relationships with newsrooms while making union members feel confident and comfortable speaking to reporters.
For decades, unions have been fleeced by PR consultants who extract high fees while promising special access to reporters. Often, this is deceptive, as their relationships consist of contact lists with reporters who see them as a nuisance, with flat pitches full of generic talking points, rather than colorful, authentic material that reporters can get directly from workers.
As part of these media training sessions, I intend to teach union members how to build genuine relationships with journalists. To understand a reporter’s interests, their audience, the demands of their editors, and how to build a genuine relationship based on mutual understanding.
If your union or group would be interested in hosting a training, you can fill out our interest form here.
Media Training Seminar Interest for Unions & Individuals
In addition to these group services, we would like to offer online seminars for individuals interested in creating newsletters or independent media projects. If you’re interested in signing up for a virtual workshop, please fill out this interest form:
individual Media Seminar Training Interest Form
Survey about Fundraising Help & Ideas to Improve Payday Report
For years, Payday Report did not accept any advertisements, but given the financial pressure we are going to accept ads from unions and other groups that share our values.
We are also asking readers who can help in other ways, particularly with fundraising or to give feedback or ideas on how we can grow independent labor media. If you can, fill out our readers survey.
Fill Out Our Reader Survey Here
Ultimately, the key to keeping any independent media project like Payday Report alive is building more momentum for a movement that supports all forms of worker media. We need your help to keep it going.
Take action now: Help shape the future of independent labor media. Join us today.
- Complete our short survey to share your feedback and let us know how you would like to be more involved in Payday.
- Interested in media worker training? Fill out this form now, and we will reply promptly.
Many people complain about corporate media, but Payday Report is one of the few worker-funded media outlets that has been able to force the corporate media to change the way they cover things like we did with the pandemic-era strike wave.
So fill out surveys, share them with friends, and donate so we can keep worker-funded media alive.
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