Why You Should Subscribe to Model View Culture

Did you know? Our subscriptions are a collection of four 72+ page books with new Model View Culture articles, critiques, analysis and interviews, delivered in March, June, September and December 2016. You can get them in ⭐️print⭐️ (now with shipping to US, Europe, Canada and Australia), or in digital (accessible .PDF, .mobi and .epub) so you can read on your devices.

Our subscription drive is only open for a limited time, and it’s the time when we make up most of our budget for the year, so we can keep operating independent tech media for the community all year long. In this post, we wanted to tell you three reasons you should support our work by getting a subscription!

Reason One: We help drive real change in the tech industry.

We publish over 150 new articles a year, focused on the most important issues in technology today, and taking a critical perspective you won’t find anywhere else. We build awareness, outline strategies and share tactics for a better tech industry. We cover things like building diverse teams, healthier cultures and products, and more inclusive hiring and interview processes. We take on overt discrimination as well as examine more “subtle” biases, microaggressions and power dynamics. We cover many stages and entry points into the industry itself, from childhood and youth, to schools and universities, and non-traditional paths like learn-to-code schools and bootcamps. We focus on tech community, with articles and resources on open source culture, events, conferences, hackathons and makeathons, startups and entrepreneurship, and the politics of digital spaces. We also address hard topics like labor exploitation in tech, media and gaming; alcohol abuse; online harassment; pay inequality; domestic violence; eating disorders; mental illness — and the sometimes unexpected ways tech culture intersects with things like reproductive justice, reparations, colonialism, exercise, hip hop, BDSM, surveillance, beauty, appropriation, privacy and security and so much more.

Beyond the topics we take on, we also work diligently to uplift other work that’s making the tech industry better. Through our content, we highlight dozens of new and emerging projects, initiatives and companies by and for marginalized people in tech on a regular basis. Last year, we covered Tinsel (a woman-focused wearables company), the Two Black Nerds podcast, the CodeNewbie community, Thurst (a hookup app for queer people), and published the Ola Initiative (a non-profit organization for Latina, Indigenous & Black women technology professionals), and dozens more. Last year, we also partnered with AlterConf to launch Fund Club, raising community funding for groups including Revision Path, #WOCinTech Chat, TransTech Social Enterprises, the Anti-Eviction Mapping project, and Prompt for mental health in tech. This year, we’re on track to raise over $100,000 in direct funding for diversity in tech.

But in order to continue doing this work, we need your support. When you subscribe, you directly fund our new content, our contributors, our editing, our free online issues (which come out every three weeks), our website, and yes, even boring operating costs like bookkeeping and accounting so we can keep doing – and expanding – this work.  

Reason Two: We are one of the only truly independent, critical platforms in technology.

The tech media landscape has lots of big sites that are owned by large media conglomerates and paid for by VCs and ad dollars; it has very few outlets that are independent, community-focused and reader-funded. MVC has no advertisements, no corporate sponsorship and no venture funding. This makes for a better reading experience, and means that as a publication we can critique tech companies, venture capital firms, and other power structures. It means we can publish on “controversial” topics, voices that aren’t usually heard, and content that serves our COMMUNITY instead of corporate interests. But being a small press, without the major financial backing of corporations/venture funding/ads, means we run on a really small budget, and we’re 100% reliant on reader funding.

In fact, we run our entire company on less than many Silicon Valley tech companies pay entry-level software engineers. This means we have to run lean and smart; that also means that when you contribute to us financially, we really put the money to work to produce a ton of high-quality content, to uplift other individuals and groups with similar missions, and to create growth and value in our community. Our subscription drive constitutes a huge part of our budget for the year, so when you subscribe to our publication, you’re directly investing in our ability to do great work all year long.

Reason Three: We publish – and pay – voices that aren’t usually given a platform in tech.

The voices most prioritized in tech companies, tech media, tech conferences, and in the tech community overall… are almost always the white male ones. At Model View Culture, we’re 100% focused on publishing the stories, perspectives, analysis and critiques of people who are underrepresented and marginalized in tech. We publish over 100 new contributors every year, and we focus on a wide variety of social justice issues, their intersections, and how they relate to technology. Our content confronts and fights racism, misogyny, queerphobia, transphobia, ableism, abuse, harassment, economic inequality, many forms of violence and other systemic injustices.

And, in an industry where tons of work by underrepresented groups, particularly diversity work, goes unpaid, we pay our contributors: last year, we were even able to raise the amount we pay authors by 50%, making our writing rates commensurate if not exceeding prices paid by much larger and better-funded mainstream media outlets. We provide the editorial support for people to fully realize their article visions; often, emotional support to tackle challenging and personal stories; and a large audience of supportive readers. Our contributors go on to do amazing things in tech, and we’re so honored to be part of their journey.

When you subscribe to Model View Culture, you become part of that journey too – directly supporting our full community of writers.  

That’s our three reasons for today! Thank you so much for reading, and for being part of our community. It would mean so much to us if you would support our work financially, if you are able. Our first Quarterly of the 2016 subscription ships soon, so get yours today, and support the future of Model View Culture.