Form 990 for tax year 2023

Totals

Total revenue

$4,306,050

Total expenses

$5,622,602

Contributions and grants received

$4,273,676

Grants paid

$0

Program service revenue

$0

Investment income

$32,374

Other revenue

$0

Total assets, end of year

$4,104,173

Total liabilities, end of year

$209,075

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

$3,895,098

Program services expenses (Part IX)

$3,930,932

Management and general expenses

$1,380,345

Fundraising expenses

$311,325

Program service expenses (Part III)

$3,930,932

Program services were 69.9% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Mission and programs · 2023

• EDITORIAL & GRAPHICS - IN 2023, THE MARKUP PUBLISHED 140 INVESTIGATIONS, REPORTS, AND GUIDES THAT REVEALED HARMS CAUSED BY TECHNOLOGY AND HOW PEOPLE USE IT. OUR JOURNALISM WAS ACTIONABLE AND DROVE REAL-WORLD IMPACT.OUR IMPACT HAS BEEN MONUMENTAL. IN 2023, WE EXPOSED AND OUTLAWED DIGITAL DISCRIMINATION WITH THE HELP OF OUR READERS. OUR NOVEMBER 2022 DATA-DRIVEN INVESTIGATION EXPOSED THAT FOUR MAJOR COMPANIES WERE SYSTEMATICALLY GIVING THE WORST INTERNET DEALS TO NEIGHBORHOODS WITH POORER RESIDENTS AND RESIDENTS OF COLOR, ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY. BUT WE DIDN'T STOP THERE. IN 2023, WE CREATED AN INTERACTIVE MAP SO PEOPLE COULD SEE WHICH NEIGHBORHOODS WERE SHUT OUT OF FAST INTERNET IN MAJOR CITIES, A DIY GUIDE TEACHING ANYONE HOW TO INVESTIGATE INTERNET SPEEDS AND PRICES WHEREVER THEY ARE, AND A CALLOUT FOR THE PUBLIC TO HELP US FACT CHECK WHAT COMPANIES WERE TELLING THE FCC, ALL WHILE HELPING PEOPLE FIND A BETTER DEAL ON INTERNET. OVER 5,000 PEOPLE PARTICIPATED. AS A RESULT, IN NOVEMBER 2023, EXACTLY A YEAR AFTER WE PUBLISHED OUR ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION, THE FCC PASSED HISTORIC NEW RULES TO HOLD COMPANIES ACCOUNTABLE FOR DIGITAL DISCRIMINATION AND LOS ANGELES BECAME THE FIRST CITY TO BAN DIGITAL REDLINING.OUR 2023 COVERAGE ALSO DEEPLY PRIORITIZED COMMUNITIES. WE LAUNCHED OUR LANGUAGES OF MISINFORMATION SERIES, ABOUT THE INFORMATION NEEDS AND STRUGGLES OF VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANT ENCLAVES, WHICH HAS JUST WON AN AAJA JOURNALISM OF EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR HOW WE WORKED DIRECTLY WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS, BRIDGED GENERATIONAL GAPS, AND TAUGHT PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS.IN PARALLEL WITH OUR REPORTING WORK, WE CREATED DIGITAL TOOLS THAT ALLOWED READERS TO REPORT WITH US. IN SEPTEMBER 2023 WE LAUNCHED A TOOL THAT ALLOWED ANYONE TO TEST WHETHER X (FORMERLY KNOWN AS TWITTER) WAS THROTTLING LINKS OUT TO OTHER WEBSITES AND FOUND THAT THE SITE WAS PURPOSEFULLY DELAYING ACCESS TO FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, SUBSTACK, AND BLUESKY. A MONTH LATER, WE BROKE THE STORY THAT PATRON WAS ALSO BEING THROTTLED, HURTING CREATORS, AND WE FOUND OUT BECAUSE A READER TESTED THE WEBSITE, AND WE VERIFIED IT.

  Expenses $3,106,634

• PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY - IN 2023, THE PRODUCT & TECH TEAM FACED NUMEROUS CHALLENGES BUT STILL HAD MULTIPLE MAJOR SUCCESSES. WE STARTED THE YEAR WITH A COMPREHENSIVE REDESIGN OF OUR HOMEPAGE, ACCOMPANIED BY THE CREATION OF NEW CMS FEATURES TO SUPPORT THE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW HOMEPAGE AND MAKE IT EASY FOR EDITORS TO CHANGE IT EXTENSIVELY IF NEEDED. ADDITIONALLY, FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2020, WE MADE EXTENSIVE FEATURE UPDATES TO OUR PREMIERE TOOL BLACKLIGHT. WE UTILIZED OUR SUMMER 2023 COHORT OF INTERNS TO HELP US MANAGE THE WORKLOAD AND THE END RESULT IS A PLETHORA OF NEW FEATURES INCLUDING THE ABILITY TO "SPOOF" SITE SCANS FROM GERMANY, SCAN AS A DESKTOP BROWSER IN ADDITION TO A MOBILE BROWSER, BYPASS OUR CACHE OF ALREADY SCANNED SITES, AND A HOST OF PERFORMANCE UPGRADES. LATER IN THE YEAR ONE OF THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF OUR TEAM DEPARTED FOR A ROLE AT THE FTC, AND THE OTHER ENGINEER WENT ON PARENTAL LEAVE. DESPITE THE HIT IN PRODUCTIVITY, WE WERE ABLE TO QUICKLY HIRE AN EXPERIENCED REPLACEMENT ENGINEER AND SPEND THE LATTER PART OF THE YEAR IMPLEMENTING IMPORTANT INFRASTRUCTURE UPDATES.

  Expenses $698,714

• AUDIENCE - IN 2023, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE LAUNCH OF OUR WEBSITE REDESIGN, WE CONTINUED TO GROW THE MARKUP'S OVERALL BRAND IMPACT. OUR WORK WAS REPUBLISHED ACROSS OTHER NEWS NETWORKS 1,223 TIMES AND LOCALIZED BY OTHER NEWSROOMS 8 TIMES. OUR TOOLS CONTINUE TO HAVE IMPACT WITH OUR AUDIENCE AS WELL: OVER 13 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE USED OUR BLACKLIGHT TOOL. WE WERE ALSO RECOGNIZED BY LEADERS IN OUR INDUSTRY. WE WON 18 INDUSTRY AWARDS, INCLUDING SEVERAL FROM SOCIETY FOR NEWS DESIGN, SIGMA, SCRIPPS HOWARD, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, AND THE ONLINE JOURNALISM ASSOCIATION.CHANGE, ONLINE JOURNALISM, AND DEADLINE CLUB.

  Expenses $125,584

As filed on the 2023 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part VII

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

No itemized grants to organizations on this return.

Provenance

Return type

form_990

Tax year

2023

Filed

4 November 2024

IRS schema version

2023v5.1

Source object

202443099349301494

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