Markup News Inc

THE MARKUP IS A NONPROFIT NEWSROOM THAT CHALLENGES TECHNOLOGY TO SERVE THE PUBLIC GOOD. TO DO THIS, WE UTILIZE AN UNPARALLELED ROSTER OF ENGINEERS AND JOURNALISTS WHO PURSUE MEANINGFUL, DATA-DRIVEN INVESTIGATIONS AND DEVELOP DIGITAL TOOLS AND BLUEPRINTS SO OTHERS CAN DO IT TOO.

EDITORIAL & GRAPHICS - IN 2023, THE MARKUP PUBLISHED 140 INVESTIGATIONS, REPORTS, AND GUIDES THAT REVEALED HARMS CAUSED BY TECHNOLOGY AND HOW PEOPLE USE IT. OUR JOURNALISM WAS ACTIONABLE AND DROVE REAL-WORLD IMPACT.OUR IMPACT HAS BEEN MONUMENTAL. IN 2023, WE EXPOSED AND OUTLAWED DIGITAL DISCRIMINATION WITH THE HELP OF OUR READERS. OUR NOVEMBER 2022 DATA-DRIVEN INVESTIGATION EXPOSED THAT FOUR MAJOR COMPANIES WERE SYSTEMATICALLY GIVING THE WORST INTERNET DEALS TO NEIGHBORHOODS WITH POORER RESIDENTS AND RESIDENTS OF COLOR, ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY. BUT WE DIDN'T STOP THERE. IN 2023, WE CREATED AN INTERACTIVE MAP SO PEOPLE COULD SEE WHICH NEIGHBORHOODS WERE SHUT OUT OF FAST INTERNET IN MAJOR CITIES, A DIY GUIDE TEACHING ANYONE HOW TO INVESTIGATE INTERNET SPEEDS AND PRICES WHEREVER THEY ARE, AND A CALLOUT FOR THE PUBLIC TO HELP US FACT CHECK WHAT COMPANIES WERE TELLING THE FCC, ALL WHILE HELPING PEOPLE FIND A BETTER DEAL ON INTERNET. OVER 5,000 PEOPLE PARTICIPATED. AS A RESULT, IN NOVEMBER 2023, EXACTLY A YEAR AFTER WE PUBLISHED OUR ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION, THE FCC PASSED HISTORIC NEW RULES TO HOLD COMPANIES ACCOUNTABLE FOR DIGITAL DISCRIMINATION AND LOS ANGELES BECAME THE FIRST CITY TO BAN DIGITAL REDLINING.OUR 2023 COVERAGE ALSO DEEPLY PRIORITIZED COMMUNITIES. WE LAUNCHED OUR LANGUAGES OF MISINFORMATION SERIES, ABOUT THE INFORMATION NEEDS AND STRUGGLES OF VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANT ENCLAVES, WHICH HAS JUST WON AN AAJA JOURNALISM OF EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR HOW WE WORKED DIRECTLY WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS, BRIDGED GENERATIONAL GAPS, AND TAUGHT PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS.IN PARALLEL WITH OUR REPORTING WORK, WE CREATED DIGITAL TOOLS THAT ALLOWED READERS TO REPORT WITH US. IN SEPTEMBER 2023 WE LAUNCHED A TOOL THAT ALLOWED ANYONE TO TEST WHETHER X (FORMERLY KNOWN AS TWITTER) WAS THROTTLING LINKS OUT TO OTHER WEBSITES AND FOUND THAT THE SITE WAS PURPOSEFULLY DELAYING ACCESS TO FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, SUBSTACK, AND BLUESKY. A MONTH LATER, WE BROKE THE STORY THAT PATRON WAS ALSO BEING THROTTLED, HURTING CREATORS, AND WE FOUND OUT BECAUSE A READER TESTED THE WEBSITE, AND WE VERIFIED IT.

PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY - IN 2023, THE PRODUCT & TECH TEAM FACED NUMEROUS CHALLENGES BUT STILL HAD MULTIPLE MAJOR SUCCESSES. WE STARTED THE YEAR WITH A COMPREHENSIVE REDESIGN OF OUR HOMEPAGE, ACCOMPANIED BY THE CREATION OF NEW CMS FEATURES TO SUPPORT THE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW HOMEPAGE AND MAKE IT EASY FOR EDITORS TO CHANGE IT EXTENSIVELY IF NEEDED. ADDITIONALLY, FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2020, WE MADE EXTENSIVE FEATURE UPDATES TO OUR PREMIERE TOOL BLACKLIGHT. WE UTILIZED OUR SUMMER 2023 COHORT OF INTERNS TO HELP US MANAGE THE WORKLOAD AND THE END RESULT IS A PLETHORA OF NEW FEATURES INCLUDING THE ABILITY TO "SPOOF" SITE SCANS FROM GERMANY, SCAN AS A DESKTOP BROWSER IN ADDITION TO A MOBILE BROWSER, BYPASS OUR CACHE OF ALREADY SCANNED SITES, AND A HOST OF PERFORMANCE UPGRADES. LATER IN THE YEAR ONE OF THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF OUR TEAM DEPARTED FOR A ROLE AT THE FTC, AND THE OTHER ENGINEER WENT ON PARENTAL LEAVE. DESPITE THE HIT IN PRODUCTIVITY, WE WERE ABLE TO QUICKLY HIRE AN EXPERIENCED REPLACEMENT ENGINEER AND SPEND THE LATTER PART OF THE YEAR IMPLEMENTING IMPORTANT INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATES.

AUDIENCE - IN 2023, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE LAUNCH OF OUR WEBSITE REDESIGN, WE CONTINUED TO GROW THE MARKUP'S OVERALL BRAND IMPACT. OUR WORK WAS REPUBLISHED ACROSS OTHER NEWS NETWORKS 1,223 TIMES AND LOCALIZED BY OTHER NEWSROOMS 8 TIMES. OUR TOOLS CONTINUE TO HAVE IMPACT WITH OUR AUDIENCE AS WELL: OVER 13 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE USED OUR BLACKLIGHT TOOL. WE WERE ALSO RECOGNIZED BY LEADERS IN OUR INDUSTRY. WE WON 18 INDUSTRY AWARDS, INCLUDING SEVERAL FROM SOCIETY FOR NEWS DESIGN, SIGMA, SCRIPPS HOWARD, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, AND THE ONLINE JOURNALISM ASSOCIATION.CHANGE, ONLINE JOURNALISM, AND DEADLINE CLUB.