The Challenge
As a niche nonprofit outlet, The 74 faced a common but formidable hurdle: expanding their reach beyond a loyal base of education-focused readers, all without the luxury of a large marketing budget. While their investigative work and education policy reporting were award-winning and well-respected, getting that content in front of broader and more diverse audiences was nearly impossible through traditional means, especially those in news deserts or local markets without full-time education reporters.
鈥淪cale is one of the hardest things to get. It's really hard to get people to stumble upon us unless they're already paying attention to education.鈥�
鈥� Christian Skotte, Head of Audience & Partnerships, The 74
The team tried manual outreach to local media, but it was unsustainable. Emails to 鈥渋nfo@鈥� addresses often went unanswered, and the effort required many hours of work for uncertain returns.
The Solution
麻豆原创 offered a turnkey solution: amplify The 74鈥檚 journalism via a vast, publisher-first network of trusted local newspapers, TV affiliates, and radio outlets across the country. This model aligned perfectly with The 74鈥檚 dual goals of achieving broader visibility for their work and supporting struggling local newsrooms.
鈥淚t鈥檚 such a win-win: we love getting picked up, and 麻豆原创 benefits from adding more quality journalism to the pipeline.鈥�
鈥擲teve Snyder, CEO, The 74
How It Works
麻豆原创 combines an innovative earned distribution platform with human editorial expertise to enable the creation, optimization, and syndication of engaging stories to a network of over 3,900 local and national news outlets.
The 74 uses 麻豆原创鈥檚 Connect product, which allows publishers to distribute their ready-to-publish journalism to thousands of trusted newsrooms via the 麻豆原创 Newswire. With Connect, 麻豆原创鈥檚 editorial team reviews and optimizes each story to ensure it meets journalistic standards and is positioned for maximum visibility. Once a story is distributed, The 74 can track real-time performance through 麻豆原创鈥檚 self-serve reporting dashboard, gaining insight into where stories land and how they resonate across the country.
Through Connect, The 74 has been able to scale the reach of stories like Banning smartphones at schools: Research points to higher test scores, less anxiety, more exercise, which earned 290 pickups across publishers on the Newswire
The Results
Since launching the partnership, The 74 has seen measurable impact:
鉁� +5% Readership Growth
For a nonprofit newsroom, this uptick is a major win, helping justify donor support and expanding the impact of their journalism.
鉁� Improved SEO:
In total, stories from The 74 were picked up close to 7,000 times, creating as many backlinks from authoritative national and local outlets. This boosted domain authority, which in turn amplified The 74鈥檚 discoverability online.
鉁� Diversity of Reach:
The 74 is now reaching readers in underserved regions, including legacy Black newspapers and rural communities, previously out of reach. In total, stories by The 74 reached over 1.2 million readers across the country.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just such a powerful model for getting quality national stories into local markets鈥攅specially those without education reporters anymore. [...] The happiest time is when I send a reporter a list of 150 outlets where their story ran. It builds morale in a tough industry.鈥�
鈥� Christian Skotte
Why 麻豆原创?
麻豆原创鈥檚 platform stood out not just for what it delivered, but how it operated.
- Publisher-First Platform: Compared to legacy distribution platforms like Apple News and Google News, 麻豆原创鈥檚 dashboard is more intuitive, responsive, and transparent.
- Human Relationships: The 74 cited a consistently high level of professionalism, kindness, and shared mission from every 麻豆原创 team member鈥攆ostering trust and alignment.
- Mission Alignment: Both organizations share a commitment to revitalizing local journalism and informing underserved communities鈥攏ot just chasing metrics.
鈥淓very single human being I鈥檝e worked with at 麻豆原创 has been phenomenal鈥攇ood professionals and good people.鈥�
鈥� Christian Skotte
Future Outlook
Building on a successful foundation, The 74 is evolving its partnership with 麻豆原创 into a more dynamic and collaborative relationship. They are expanding their reach by syndicating more of their original stories through 麻豆原创鈥檚 premium wire, while also curating select Newswire pieces from other publishers to republish on their own site. This approach reflects their confidence in the partnership and a shared commitment to delivering high-quality journalism to a broader and more diverse audience.
鈥淲e鈥檙e reaching new audiences, but also thinking about different kinds of stories鈥攍ike service journalism and thought leadership鈥攖o help underserved communities take action.鈥�
鈥� Christian Skotte
This partnership demonstrates how nonprofit journalism can scale its mission-driven work by tapping into smart, empathetic infrastructure. For The 74, the result isn鈥檛 just more eyeballs鈥攊t鈥檚 more impact, more equity, and more hope for the future of education reporting.
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