July 8, 2025, 12:26pm
It’s been a weird time for the papers of record. The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post have all made compromising to catastrophic judgment errors. Most recently, the former hyped a eugenicist to smear an elected candidate in the New York mayoral race. If you’re anything like me, you may have been seeking a new news source or two to diversify the palate. But it can be hard to wade through the thicket, in this restless attention economy.
For big updates, there’s NPR (for now…). I also favor The Guardian. Democracy Now. But with the disappearance of national Metro sections, it’s the juicy feature that’s feeling imperiled.
Some great minds on Bluesky recently put together this useful starter pack of independent, worker-owned and reader-funded media, to scratch this itch. But I figure intros are in order. If you’re looking to read some hard-hitting national news, look no further than the list below.
1. Talking Points Memo condenses news of the day into highly readable briefings. The indie site’s jurisdiction is national politics. They’ve recently done a nice job breaking down the practical effects of the GOP’s horrific budget bill. Daily morning and evening “memos” can be delivered straight to your inbox, with one juicy long read thrown in the mix every so often.
2. For $3/month, you can support Flaming Hydra, a worker-owned news/commentary/criticism hub. Contributors include commentator heavies like Osita Nwanevu, Kim Kelly, and Anna Merlan. And subjects span the phenom of socialist Twitch, the Canadian health care system, and the DIY “data market.”
3. Assigned Media “publishes factual, up to date, responsible coverage of trans issues.” While a sister site, the Trans Data Library, collects and monitors information about anti-trans activism around the country. Other Assigned coverage includes practical updates (like this piece on passports) and legal analysis (like this look at the effects of the Skrmetti ruling).
4. Bolts Magazine covers “the nuts and bolts of political change” by taking a local-up approach to the news. This site is singular in its scattered particularity. The current homepage includes missives from Alabama, Oklahoma, and California. And certain features—like this guide to every single state Supreme Court—make these many states feel actually united.
5. Grist covers climate news. Think looming bills and latest science. This piece from Matt Simon digging into the science behind the catastrophic Texas floods makes the abstract plain, while this disaster preparedness kit offers practical advice.
6. Prism is an independent newsroom run by people of color. Their coverage of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and evolving U.S. immigration policies has been especially sharp-nosed. In-depth national reporting “centers the humanity and experiences of immigrants, people who are undocumented, and refugees.”
7. Rest of the World is a nonprofit news org that looks at our rapidly evolving digital world—mostly from an outside-America vantage. If you want to know what Meta’s been up to in India, or how the EV rush is affecting Zimbabwe, this is your one-stop-shop.
8. Speaking of non-Western news, I recommend taking a gander at Africa is a Country. This growing podcast/newsletter/print pub “offers a critical perspective on various social, political, and cultural issues affecting Africa that push back on continental legacies of colonialism and exploitation.” The latest letter covers Africa’s last neoliberals and the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. A great resource for the diaspora.
9. The Appeal is a nonprofit news org that focuses on criminal justice (and its lack) across the States. For those of us who’ve daydreamed about blowing up our art lives to become public defenders, the nitty-gritty coverage in pieces like this one covering Minnesota’s pre-trial system is most welcome.
10. You may already know ProPublica, for its deep investigative dives and scoops in the public interest. If not, they’re really worth supporting. I especially applaud this indie news org’s commitment to demystifying methodology behind the reporting, as they did in this recent piece on miscarriages in Texas.
11. For feminist news, we have The Flytrap. This newer hub aims to be “unf*ck your algorithm” with a lot of intersectional analysis for and by femme and queer people. This great piece on the “first LGBTQ co-housing community” in the country is a great proof of concept.
12. And 404 Media is a journalist-funded digital media company that aims to explore how tech is reshaping the world. Critically minded and occasionally spicy, I’ve come to love this site for its unusual scientific angles. Like this piece on a possibly feminist ancient proto-city.
13. There are many great local indies to shout out, from Current Affairs to the Chicago Reader. But I’ll leave you with some hometown pride. New Yorkers have a friend in Hell Gate, a happily cheeky yet extremely rigorous city news outlet. In the few years since its start, the site’s tuned a nice mix of fun coverage (like this map that points you to to the best $20 dinner in any neighborhood) and hard-hitting analysis.
Their coverage of the mayoral race has been especially strong. And welcome, all things considered.
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