Happy Anniversary, Free Press!

Free Press turns 20 on Aug. 14 — marking two decades of our fight to transform our media system. As this date has approached, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of sharing our history and telling our own story. Over the next six months, leading up to the 20th-anniversary celebration we’re planning in Washington (DC) for next spring, my colleagues and I are going to use this space to revisit some of our biggest accomplishments — many of which are highlighted on this newly updated timeline — and tell the story of how Free Press has grown and changed over the past 20 years. The full Free Press story — the more interesting if longer and nuanced one — is one of transformation. It’s a story of an organization willing to experiment, move and change. Maybe not always as fast as everyone would like, or maybe too fast for others. And, of course, not without mistakes. But with so many, many more successes. At Free Press, we are committed to transforming the media to realize a just society, to building an enduring multiracial democracy in this country, to being an organization that lives up to those values.