Not the last Word

The Organization for Accessible Journalism is suspending the monthly magazine until funding can be secured

This was not an easy decision — and thankfully, one I didn’t have to make on my own.

I spent the last month grappling with the reality of what the is is.

The Word began as one of the projects I wasn’t even sure the Organization for Accessible Journalism — at the time, still working as Equal Access Public Media — should pursue. OAJ’s fiscal sponsor, the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation, suggested that it was time we began publishing news or original content in some format.

At the time, OAJ’s chief of operations, E. Simone Jenerson, was on leave. Jenerson and I work in an equal partnership, making decisions together. Although I create and run projects, I do not generally launch projects without her input — and certainly not without her running the numbers. But during her absence, I felt the pressure of making the decision alone. So I did. I figured that we could do it with minimal cost, and we could see returns in donations as the publication grew.

We knew we couldn’t pay freelancers much in the beginning. We made that known, and still freelancers helped. Some even donated their work. The rest accepted a measly $50 to $100 an article.

But the donations did not follow. Nor did the grants. Nor did the underwriting or grants.

In the end, as OAJ allocated more and more of the budget to The Word, it became clear that it wouldn’t be sustainable as a project. Moreover, it was becoming a financial yoke on the organization, pulling funding away from other projects.

The Word has gone the last three months without any funding, completely unable to pay any freelancers.

A couple weeks ago, I sat down with Jenerson and proposed that we suspend The Word until dedicated funding can be secured. How much funding? Enough to hire a couple of staffers and pay freelancers at industry rates. We informed the OAJ board of directors of our plan, and everyone agreed: this is not goodbye; this is see you when we are a funded magazine that can cover accessibility in journalism.

And we do intend to bring it back, because during our short time publishing, we saw:

• Thousands of readers on articles about accessibility in journalism and news.
• Growth of our companion newsletter, introduced earlier this year, that gives a behind the scenes look at how we assigned, reported, and wrote the articles.
• Several of our writers get picked up as freelancers at larger publications.
• One of our freelance reporters earn a prestigious fellowship after learning to report news at The Word.

As an editor, I am proud of the work we did. We found our voice, even if we never found our footing. I have so many ideas for when we bring it back — both in the overall design and format, and for the content I’d like to purse.

Jenerson will tell you that this project turned out to be my “happy place.” I was in my element, mentoring reporters and writers, assigning articles, editing, fact checking, and running a newsroom (even if it was virtual). Even better? I was running a newsroom that wrote about the journalism industry and accessibility, my two favorite topics combine into one.

But more than this being my “happy place,” this is necessary. Accessibility in the journalism industry is just as necessary to cover as the media itself or democracy or First Amendment issues. Accessibility is about making sure news is reaching people who are using adaptive tech, people who are normally left behind by news, and everyone in between.

So this isn’t the last word on The Word. I won’t let it be.

Stacy Kess is the chief of editorial and accessibility for Equal Access Public Media. She previously worked as an editor and reporter at papers across the U.S. Find her on Bluesky at @stacykess.