Re: Layoffs

Friend, I wanted to follow up to the email that I sent you yesterday because this is really important: Daily Kos has not only survived for the past two decades but we have thrived. That is because of you, and the thousands of Daily Kos readers and activists that pitch in a few bucks at a time. In fact, our largest source of revenue are those grassroots donations. It is a source of pride to say we are the country's largest progressive and independent news and activism hub in the country. And that is because of you, Friend; not some billionaire who could use their purse strings to control what we said or corporate sponsors that come with their own agenda. [However, we still need to raise $22,873 by the end of the month to meet our budget needs. Can you help us out by donating $5 today?]( [DONATE]( Thanks for all you do, Amanda McKay, Daily Kos --------------------------------------------------------------- Friend, this week marks Daily Kos' 20th anniversary! That's a pretty remarkable milestone considering the media landscape–or apocalypse–of the past 20 years. When Daily Kos first sprung up as a one-man blog, social media was barely even a thing yet. As platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and tech giants like Amazon and Google, all entered the scene and spread like wildfire, Daily Kos also saw huge growth. Our stories and community posts were shared across the internet and more and more people flocked to be part of a new progressive community. Unfortunately, that didn't last forever. First, starting at the beginning of the previous decade, ever-increasing numbers of people began using social media as the centerpiece of their digital experience instead of search engines and direct visits to websites. A few years later, Facebook, which once served as the pageview-generating life blood of many digital news media companies, including Daily Kos, changed its algorithm in such a way that effectively turned off almost all traffic generation to most news media operations. However, even before that happened, Big Tech giants had been vacuuming up more and more of the advertising revenue that news media companies counted on to pay their bills. All told, this left some organizations, including one time giants like Mic, ThinkProgress and really the entire old progressive blogosphere, with few options to drive traffic and therefore revenue, thus resulting in their untimely demise. Over the past 20 years, Daily Kos hasn't been immune from these financial troubles and have had to face some tough decisions. We could do what some other media companies did; be acquired by some bigger corporation, find a billionaire backer, put up a paywall to bring in more revenue, lay off staff, or just close down entirely. However, we didn't want to do any of that. We wanted our content to be accessible to everyone at no cost, and we didn't want an uber wealthy patron who could use their purse strings to control what we said and did. So we took a different approach, and turned to our community of readers and grassroots activists to help pay our bills. This approach paid off in a big way! Thousands from the Daily Kos community, giving just a few dollars at a time not only helped meet our needs but allowed us to thrive and grow. But what's more, it made us accountable to you, Friend. That's pretty important to us: Daily Kos relies on grassroots donations from our readers and activists to meet our budgetary needs, not to a billionaire backer, shareholders, or corporate sponsors. [We are currently facing another financial gap. We still need to raise $54,539 by the end of the month to meet our operating expenses. Can you support Daily Kos and help us meet our monthly budgetary goal by donating $5?]( [DONATE]( Thanks for all you do, Amanda McKay, Daily Kos If you wish to donate by mail instead, please send a check to Daily Kos, PO Box 70036, Oakland, CA, 94612. Contributions to Daily Kos are not tax deductible. (Please note that we may be slow to process checks during the coronavirus outbreak.) Sent via [ActionNetwork.org](. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Daily Kos, please [click here](.