The Objective is a nonprofit newsroom examining systems of power and inequity in journalism: how newsrooms treat their employees, how journalists interact with their community, and what new forms of journalism can look like.
Mainstream newsrooms have never reflected the diversity of the U.S., nor have they been welcoming to people of color.
Leadership at The New York Times initially refused to print the word “gay” and intentionally ignored covering the AIDS crisis. The Washington Post hired its first Black journalist in 1952 (he left after two years). The Los Angeles Times’ Editor-in-Chief, in 2020, admitted that the paper “fomented the hysteria that led to Japanese American incarceration, the Zoot Suit Riots, redlining and racial covenants.”
Despite all this, major American newsrooms have called themselves objective for generations. But their coverage has always been defined by homogeneous teams that fail to account for race, gender, class, disability, and sexuality. Despite holding up objectivity as journalism’s gold standard, major U.S. newsrooms have never consistently lived up to their promised ideals of fairness and impartiality.
By now, many journalists are aware of the inequity embedded in the way journalism is practiced. What our field needs is solutions.
Founded remotely in 2020 as a volunteer-run collective, The Objective believes in journalism’s ability to be both representative of communities around the U.S. and thoughtful of how coverage is written for (not just about) them. We believe in building collective and narrative power for communities that have been misrepresented or dismissed in order to change the way journalism is practiced in the U.S.
We believe there’s a better way to practice journalism — and we’re exploring how to make it happen.
What’s new?
The Objective wins its first INN Award!
The Objective is a finalist for two INN Awards!
Leadership Team
Gabe Schneider
Co-Executive Director (Operations)
Based in Los Angeles, his work has been published in MinnPost, Texas Tribune, and LA Magazine.
James (Janelle) Salanga
Co-Executive Director (Editorial)
Also, a podcast producer for The Sick Times, they’re based on California’s Central Coast.
Copy Editors
Omar Rashad | Holly Rosewood | Jen Ramos Eisen
Advisory Council
Karen K. Ho, senior writer at ARTnews.
Hanaa’ Tameez, staff writer for Nieman Lab.
Lewis Raven Wallace, author of The View from Somewhere: Undoing the Myth of Journalistic Objectivity.
Tanvi Misra, writer and multimedia journalist based in Washington DC.
Anjali Khosla, assistant professor of journalism and design at The New School.
Anita Varma, assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Media at UT Austin.
Cordelia Yu, acting director of experience and systems design in the Office of Regulatory and Oversight Systems at General Services Administration.
Board of Directors
Mohamed Al Elew, data reporter at The Markup.
Adriana Lacy, journalist and audience consultant.
Lacy Lew Nguyen Wright, writer, activist, and social impact consultant.
Our Supporters
While our leadership team is all volunteer, we rely on reader support to ensure our contributors get paid equitably for their work. Your tax-deductible donations help us compensate our writers and cover operational costs. You can donate here.
The Objective is a fiscally sponsored project of and a member publication of the Institute for Nonprofit News. All donations are tax-deductible.
We maintain a public list of all organizations that donate to The Objective, as well as all donations of more than $5,000 in a year:
Indiegraf • Google News Initiative • Fund for Nonprofit News at The Miami Foundation • National Association of Science Writers • Project Voice • Democracy Fund • Center for Cooperative Media • Community Information Co-Op • LION Publishers • Election SOS & Hearken • Missouri School of Journalism • Open News • Reynolds Journalism Institute • Borealis Racial Equity in Journalism Fund
Editorial Independence Policy
While we accept donations and support from individuals and organizations, our editorial direction is defined internally. As such, there is a firewall between the money accepted by The Objective and the specific stories and articles we publish.
The Objective may accept financial support for reporting on specific topics or coverage areas, but we determine what the coverage looks like and retain full rights to and editorial control of stories.
Quotes or paragraphs may be shared with sources for accuracy, but we never share full stories with anyone outside of our organization prior to publication.
Acknowledgment: The Objective created this policy in accordance with standards developed by the Institute for Nonprofit News, with additional guidance from the editorial independence policies and guidelines of The Trace.