No artificial intelligence. No Substack. Trust readers. Those are three of the main tenets of The Flytrap’s motto and mission to “unfuck the algorithm.”

“We're just going to say what we mean,” co-founder Aria Velasquez said. “And if people understand it, that's great. And if they don't, then that's unfortunate.”

The intersectional feminist media co-op launched its Kickstarter yesterday and announced its founding cadre of 10 writers, editors, and artists who have freelanced for seminal feminist publications like Bitch Media and The Toast (RIP to both). It’s just one of several worker-owned or led outlets that have emerged in recent years, including The Appeal, The 51st, Flaming Hydra, Defector, Aftermath, Rascal, and Hell Gate.

The idea started to take shape when Jezebel announced its shutdown last November. Co-founder Andrea Grimes reached out to an array of writers, including Velasquez, who she thought would be interested. The new year reduced some momentum, but the “Untitled Internet Bloggy Project” — as it was first called in email subject lines — took off on the cusp of spring and summer. By August, the founders group was finalized.

The final lineup of co-founders also includes Nicole Froio, Christine Grimaldi, Chrissy Stroop, Evette Dionne, Katelyn Burns, Rommy Torrico, s.e. smith, and Tina Vásquez.

“We want to bring back the fun, we want to bring back the nuance, we want to bring back a period of the Internet where feminism wasn't a dirty word,” Froio said. “We are all feminists, but I think we're also very aware that feminism and social justice language can totally be co-opted for rage bait, click bait, and we're hoping to build something different than that.”

From a cooperative business model to rejecting the pace of the news cycle and writing without inherent Internet defensiveness, The Flytrap seeks to revive the ethos of feminist, community-oriented digital media spaces that are now scarce, sans Substack or artificial intelligence. Like Defector, comments will only be available to Flytrap members, and Froio says she hopes the newsletter can be a conversation rather than a unidirectional product.

“Readers have the capacity to read complex stories,” she said. “They have the capacity to hold more than three truths in their brain at once. That’s part of how we want to build community — we want to trust our readers, especially the ones that are sponsoring us.”

The co-op will house a blog and the “Cancel Me, Daddy” podcast, a previously existing podcast about cancel culture hosted by Burns and Grimaldi.

The Flytrap’s members are currently curating their internal editorial calendar, working on securing legal representation, and figuring out subscriber retention. Its first edition will go live on a day “scarier than Halloween in America”, as Velasquez quipped: Election Day. Read the full profile on The Objective.

—James Salanga

WHAT ELSE?

Growing pains, community service: Richmonders’ first impressions of Richmondside: Richmondside, the third publication operated by nonprofit news publisher Cityside, is an alternative to the California city’s primary news source — the Richmond Standard, funded by Chevron, also Richmond’s largest employer. Andrew Fortin-Caldera spoke with community members and Richmondside staffers about the newsroom’s impact since it launched in June.

🟠 Read the story in The Objective.

In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s devastation, local news outlets find ways to support their communities: An iHeartRadio station operating 24/7 with a call-in format. Bilingual information about food, water, and FEMA assistance. Text message updates. These are just some of the ways newsrooms in the path of Hurricane Helene have been supporting their communities, modeling the ways local journalism can provide crucial community service in the wake of natural disaster.

📰 Read the story in Poynter.

Freelance worker protections codified in California law: Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Freelance Worker Protection Act into law this past Saturday, providing anti-retaliation and payment agreement protections along with mandatory contracts and 30-day payment terms. The National Writers Union sponsored the bill. This past weekend, Newsom also vetoed a bill that would’ve set a national safety standard for artificial intelligence, also an industry concern as more newsrooms welcome the technology into their operations.

📰 Read the press release in the National Writers Union and context about the AI bill in POLITICO.

User Mag, penned by Taylor Lorenz, to cover tech’s users as a nexus of power on the Internet: The Washington Post columnist is going independent, planning to publish User Mag as a newsletter arriving 1-3 times a week. The publication is premised on “the belief that the real story of technology lies with its users,” Lorenz writes. She said her departure from legacy media is rooted in institutions’ general struggle to cover the Internet and her desire for more autonomy in her work.

📰 Read the announcement in User Mag and more about Lorenz’s decision in The Hollywood Reporter.

Ahead of The New Yorker Festival, 99% of union members vote to authorize a strike: The New Yorker staff are planning potential direct action for the festival, which takes place during the last weekend of October. In 2020, the union’s public solidarity campaign pushed U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren to temporarily drop out until management and union reached a deal.

📰 Read the story in The Hollywood Reporter.

Looking for a job? Here are a few places to look: INN | ONA | JournalismJobs.com | 10 Jobs and a Dog | NABJ | AAJA | NAHJ | NLGJA | Trans Journalists Association | West Coast Media Jobs | @WritersofColor | MEO Jobs | Freelance Journalist Rates | Source Jobs | Opportunities of the Week ($)

How about a style guide? Trans Journalists Association | Diversity Style Guide | Tribal Nations Media Guide | NABJ Style Guide | Disability Language Style Guide | AAJA Style Guide | NAHJ Cultural Competence Handbook | SPJ Race & Gender Hotline | AMEJA Media Resource Guide | The Press in Prison | The Conscious Style Guide | Reporting on Addiction | Religion and Spirituality (Language, Please)

Thanks for reading our newsletter. We appreciate you being here, and we’ll have more for you soon.

— 30 —