Why We're a Cooperative
Our Commitment to the Working Class
No More Corporate Media
We believe the media crisis sweeping through society today is a direct result of capitalism becoming the dominant economic system. Those who own the outlets shape what gets covered, how it gets covered, who gets hired to cover it, and who benefits from the reporting.
We can’t fix journalism (or society) by keeping the same profit-over-people structures and hoping for better outcomes.
If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.
Why Not a Nonprofit?
When we started building TCL, incorporating as a nonprofit was the obvious answer. It’s what you do. Grant funding, tax-deductible donations, fiscal sponsorship, 501(c)(3), so on and so on. Every independent media outlet we admired had gone that route.
But the more we looked at this option, the more we saw its limits.
Nonprofits Answer to Donors
A nonprofit’s survival depends on foundations, major donors, and institutional funders. That means we’re still in a situation where the people who sign the checks are the ones truly shaping the coverage, hiring, and editorial direction – even when nobody intends it to be that way. Funding relationships inherently create room for manipulation. We want to build something that answers to readers and workers, not to grant programs, philanthropists, or institutional requirements.
Nonprofits Don’t Build Ownership
When you donate to a nonprofit, you’re just that – a donor. You have no governance rights, no share of success, no real stake in what you’re giving your hard earned money to. We want our readers to be actual co-owners. Not customers. Owners.
Nonprofits Still Run Like Corporations
A nonprofit board can be just as hierarchical, just as closed-minded, and just as inaccessible as a corporate board. The tax status doesn’t change capitalism’s power structures, which are inherently tied to white supremacy. No matter how progressive in mission, nonprofits almost always end up with policies and practices that are ingrained in white dominant culture.
Despite staff of nonprofits generally being diverse, leadership in the nonprofit world is overwhelmingly white. It is also dominated by the wealthy, and the largest driver of philanthropy for the wealthy in the US tends to be tax incentives. Because of this, nonprofits tend to avoid important conversations about race, inequity, privilege, and wealth disparities, for fear of “turning off” donors – centering the experiences and voices of the wealthy over the working class and their needs.
We want the structure of The Convergence Lens to be different from this at the very start.
Journalists are supposed to be the check and balance on government. We're supposed to be holding those in power accountable. We're not supposed to be their megaphone. That's what the corporate media have become.
Why a Cooperative?
A cooperative is a business that is owned and democratically controlled by its members. At The Convergence Lens, we are owned by two groups of people: the workers who produce the journalism, and the readers who rely on it.
This is called a multi-stakeholder cooperative, and it’s rare in media. There are less than 50 worker co-ops in the U.S media landscape in total, let alone multi-stakeholder systems.
Worker-Ownership is Editorial Independence at its Best
The journalists, editors, and contributors who produce TCL’s journalism are co-owners of the organization with equal votes in how it’s run. Nobody above them is calling shots based on ad revenue or donor politics. The editorial team owns the newsroom, and the newsroom is accountable to the readers.
Reader-Ownership Means Community Accountability
Any reader of ours can become a Reader-Member – a co-owner – for $45 a year. Reader-Members vote on cooperative governance, elect representatives to the Board, and hold a stake in TCL’s direction. If we drift from our values, they have the power not only to say so, but to do something about it.
One Member, One Vote
In a cooperative, votes aren’t proportional to money or status, nor can they be bought. Every Worker-Member has one vote. Every Reader-Member has one vote. A staff writer has the same governance power as the founding editor. Journalists and readers vote on major business decisions together.
There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.
Embracing a Communal Future
We know the word socialism makes some people uncomfortable, communism even more so, but we are not ashamed of our values.
We reject the assumption that capitalist markets are the best or only mechanism for producing work that serves the public good. We reject the idea that the people who do that hard work should be forced to serve the people who own the capital. We believe workers and their communities should own the enterprise, share in its success, and govern it democratically.
That’s what our future should look like. Call it what you want – communism, socialism, leftist audacity – we call it right.
What This Means in Practice
• Surplus profit, when TCL has it, goes back to the people who made that possible: the workers and readers, through patronage dividends.
• No investor class. No outside shareholders. No one can buy influence over our editorial direction.
• Financial transparency is built into our structure. Members have the right to see our books.
• The cooperative’s character is legally protected – it takes a supermajority of members to change the cooperative structure.
• We learn with and teach our members about cooperative principles, practices, and struggles. This includes studies in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, dialectical and historical materialism, and intersectional proletarian organizing.
The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.
Our Relationship with Convergence Lens Studios
The Convergence Lens is connected to Convergence Lens Studios (CLS), a worker-owned cooperative for film and media production. The two organizations operate independently but share values, a governance commitment to worker ownership, and a formal partnership through a Shared Services Agreement.
CLS produces documentary films and narrative media by and for underrepresented communities. Its storytellers sometimes work alongside TCL reporters on long-form or multimedia projects. Our hope is to democratize access to the entire media and entertainment landscape, not just the journalistic field.
If you consider the great journalists in history, you don't see too many objective journalists on that list.
How to Get Involved
Become a Reader-Member
For $45 a year (and an existing platform membership at any tier, including free), you can become a co-owner of The Convergence Lens. You’ll get a vote in cooperative governance, a seat at the table when decisions are made, and a share of any surplus the cooperative distributes. You’ll be part of something that belongs to you – not to some billionaire, not to a foundation, and certainly not to a capitalist-loving corporation.
Join Us as a Worker-Member
If you’re a journalist, editor, researcher, or media professional who believes in the vision we’re aiming for, we are building our Worker-Member team. Worker-Members are the co-owners who run TCL day-to-day. You’ll have a vote in every major decision, a stake in what we build, and a voice in the journalism we produce.
Support the Work
Not ready to become a member? You can still support TCL’s journalism through a voluntary contribution. Unlike a Reader-Member fee, general contributions are not ownership stakes, but they help sustain the cooperative while we grow.
Read and Share
The most direct way to support independent, cooperative journalism is to read it, trust it, and share it with people who need it. Our journalism is free to access because we believe information belongs to everyone. Paying us anything is a choice you are free to make if you can; it’s not a requirement.
The Convergence Lens Belongs to Us
Welcome to the Free Future
