General Public Announcement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Khalilah R. Elliott
Interim Executive Director
[email protected]
www.yesmagazine.org
RELEASE DATE:
May 7, 2025
YES! Media to Sunset in June 2025 After Nearly 30 Years of Independent Journalism
With Full Hearts and Heavy News, We Say Thank You
It is with deep heartbreak yet overwhelming gratitude that we share that YES! Media will sunset operations at the end of June 2025.
This decision comes after years spent exhausting every possible path to sustainability for YES! including restructuring, scaling back operations, exploring bold new strategies, and calling on our community for support. But despite these efforts, slowed giving and reduced philanthropic investment in independent media—particularly media that centers the stories and voices of historically excluded communities—have left us without a viable path forward.
This was not the outcome any of us wanted—especially so close to celebrating 30 years of YES!
We know how urgently this work is needed. That’s what makes this decision all the more painful. In an era defined by disinformation, division, and despair, YES! has stood for something different: possibility, solutions, imagination, and…hope.
For nearly 30 years, YES! has been a platform for stories that dared to reimagine what justice could look like. We’ve centered the voices and visions of people building a better world—from Indigenous land protectors and climate organizers, to abolitionists, healers, and local changemakers rewriting the rules from the ground up.
To our brilliant staff—past and present—thank you. Your creativity, care, and conviction shaped every word, every image, every issue. You’ve carried the soul of this organization. To the incredible contributors—writers, artists, photographers, editors, and activists—who brought your voices and visions to our pages: thank you for helping us amplify the stories that mattered most. And to our loyal readers and generous donors—thank you for standing with us. You believed in this work even when it was hard to hold onto hope. Your love and support kept us going.
YES! will continue operations through June 30, 2025. In the coming weeks, we hope to share how you can continue to access our full digital archive—a public treasure trove of nearly three decades of movement journalism, bold ideas, and community-rooted storytelling that we are working to ensure remains publicly available and accessible.
As we prepare to close, we invite you to help us end this chapter with dignity and grace:
- Subscribers: Please consider donating your remaining subscription balance for YES! Magazine by May 15, 2025. This will help us reduce the organization’s final financial obligations as we prepare to shutter operations.
- Supporters: One-time donations made at this time are greatly appreciated and will help to ensure a compassionate transition and closeout for our dedicated staff. Click here to donate.
While we are heartbroken, we are also proud. Proud of what we built. Proud of who we built it with. Proud of the legacy we leave behind.
YES! may be closing its doors, but the work we championed lives on—in the stories we told, the communities we uplifted, and the movements we covered. The work continues beyond YES! and we encourage you to continue investing in independent, BIPOC-led, and solutions-focused media. The future of journalism and of our democracy depends on it.
We hope you’ll continue to carry that legacy forward. With deep gratitude and solidarity,
The YES! Media Team