We are excited to announce the return of Maya Schenwar, Truthout’s Executive Director since 2009, to the new position of Editor-in-Chief, and the promotion of Joe Macaré to Publisher. Together, they form Truthout’s new leadership team.
Maya returns to Truthout full-time after a year on sabbatical completing a book on America’s prison system and its impact on families and communities: Locked Down, Locked Out (forthcoming from Berrett-Koehler Publishers). As Editor-in-Chief, she will oversee Truthout’s editorial department with Managing Editor Victoria Harper and Content Relations Editor Leslie Thatcher.
”My first day back was like coming home,” says Maya. “I’m so excited about the next year at Truthout, and thrilled to be taking a position in which I can focus on Truthout’s editorial vision and deepen our commitment to journalism in the service of social justice.” Joe Macaré, who has been part of Truthout’s development team since early 2012, is taking on the new position of Publisher, running the organization’s fundraising, outreach and other operations.
“Joe brings a rare mix of innovative dynamism and ceaseless dedication to his work. He is both incredibly talented and wholeheartedly committed to building a better world,” Maya says. Joe adds, “I don’t think there’s ever been a more urgent need for the perspectives Truthout provides. I could not be more honored to be assuming this role and to be working with Maya on a daily basis again.”
Joining Joe in the development team is Ziggy West Jeffery, formerly Operations Manager at The Real News Network, now Truthout’s new Development Director. “I’m very excited about the opportunity to play a role in increasing the footprint of independent media by growing Truthout’s donor base and helping to expand their work,” says Ziggy, whom Joe describes as “simply the stand-out choice for this position.”
We’re very grateful to Dina Rasor for her work as Acting Executive Director during the last year, and are glad that Dina will remain with us as a weekly Truthout columnist.
If you have ideas for the team, feel free to let us know at [email protected]!
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy