Thanks to you, we just turned 13!

Dear Rappler Plus member,

Can you believe it? Rappler is 13 years old this year, if we start the count from when we first came out on beta, which was on January 1, 2012. As a corporation, though, we were registered in July 2011.

I point this out because journalists quibble over these things: were we born in 2011 or 2012, was a perennial debate in the newsroom. We burst into the scene in 2012 — so that should settle it. In 2022, when the Philippines was still on COVID-19 lockdown, we celebrated #ADecadeofCourage. Watch our virtual anniversary gig here. Former and current Rapplers also went down memory lane, recalling our early months cramped in a small office that got constantly flooded, and the first year when people couldn’t quite get our name right. Raffer? Rapper? Rappler, what’s that? Read their stories here.

What a ride it has been. And, cliche as it may sound, we couldn’t have made it this far without you.

The American news start-ups that launched at the same time as Rappler have closed shop — BuzzFeed News and Vice News, to name a few. Various provincial news outlets here have folded up. Rodrigo Duterte shut down the country’s erstwhile biggest media company, ABS-CBN. 

Big Tech has usurped the advertising model that once sustained newsrooms. It has also fueled the growth of a creator economy that puts a premium on millions of social influencers all around the world at the expense of less viral news stories from journalists. 

From the West to the Global South, leaders who shun accountability continue to silence, harass, and even kill journalists. The moneyed and the powerful use social media not only to bypass hard questions from reporters but also to wreck the media’s credibility so that their false narratives and propaganda prevail.

The news industry, and the profession, is gasping for air. 

This spells trouble — given how today’s complex and intractable problems beg for clarity, understanding, and scrutiny that the discipline of journalism can provide. 

But carry on we must.

Your contributions as a Rappler + member are one of the revenue pillars that has allowed us not only to do impactful work but also make our stories accessible to readers according to the forms they want — video, data, text, pictures, art — and in the physical spaces they’re in, whether in forums, roadshows, briefings, remote villages, and others.

Your membership fees help us avoid the path of paywalling each story, which would be to the detriment of those who can’t afford it. 

And your steadfast presence in good times and bad inspire us to do more, and do better.

This year will continue to be tough for journalists and newsrooms globally, but with your continuing support, we believe we’re set up for the challenges ahead. Here are some of things we’re excited about this year:

• Rappler Communities App. Through the app, we want to rebuild citizen networks that read and share verified information, connect with each other, and engage in vibrant chats that are not dictated by profiteering machines.
• Story pages and videos worth your time. Our reader journey sessions the past year helped us focus on what our readers want and need: more contextual reporting, more deep dives into fast-moving stories, more topics that resonate with communities and which they can act upon, more investigations into wrongdoing that impact your everydays, more news you can use. We promise to further make Rappler worth your time!
• Clarity in chaos. We have projects that we hope will help our communities better understand our tech-driven world through our Community-led roadshows and RappLearn, a learning hub of courses; Rai, a chatbot designed and powered by vetted information; and #AmbagNatin, our nationwide campaign to promote vigilance ahead of the May midterm elections, to name a few.

But we need resources to achieve all this. 

And so we thank you in advance for not only renewing your Rappler + subscription (by emailing us at plus@rappler.com) but also asking your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors to join the + community and craft a better path for journalism and democracy with us. You may also send Rappler + as a gift. 

Help us rebuild trust in facts. Help us hold power to account so we can better serve the public good.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

Courage on,

Glenda M. Gloria

Executive Editor