On Aug 8, 2023, Fragment Media Group re-established itself as a public benefit company, promising to deliver “rigorous journalism and creative content that sparks engagement and fosters awareness, understanding and authentic connection across diverse communities.”
Fragment Media Group, a leading innovator in the emergence of membership-driven digital media, has made this significant step in aligning with its core mission. CEO Nicholas White emphasized the importance of this decision. “Fragment is becoming a public benefit organization because we want to make it clear to prospective team members, to investors, our partners, and our readers that our mission is just as important as our profits,” said White.
‘So I hope that becoming a public benefit company helps us make our mission even more present—a part of our day-to-day conversations and the minutiae of how we go about our professional lives.’
For White, the commitment to the company’s mission is paramount. “We want to hold ourselves as accountable to our mission as we do our bottom line,” he stated. “Ultimately, we don’t want to make any distinction between the two. As a member-first media organization, our revenues can and should directly measure our success in delivering on our mission.”
By becoming a public benefit company, Fragment Media Group aims to deepen its commitment to serving its audience. White explained the significance of this transformation:
“As a mission-driven organization—a public benefit company—our job is to come to work every day and try to figure out how we can serve our members even better. How do we elevate the service we provide from information to knowledge? Where can we find the resources to shine new light into the corners of human life and experience that have been otherwise ignored or given short shrift? How do we find new ways to bring the community of our members together?”
These questions are especially pertinent in the current media landscape, where the clash between technological advancements and traditional reporting poses significant challenges that threaten the survival and integrity of news media. As the news media industry first began to significantly grapple with the presence of the internet’s undeniable emergence, the Pew Research Center observed a troubling trend in a 2004 report: many outlets were facing static or shrinking audiences, leading to increased pressure on revenue and profit. By 2006, Pew declared that more media outlets were covering fewer stories, a trend that has been consistently documented in their annual reports from 2004-2017, offering a comprehensive view of the evolving challenges in the industry.
These trends have only continued in the last two decades: a Pew Research Center study showed that newsroom employment in the United States has dropped by 26% from 2008-2021, despite countless digital-native news organizations appearing. If anything, employees per newsroom has gone even lower, meaning even fewer stories are being reported, despite being covered by more outlets, thus compromising the integrity of the reporting itself.
Fragment was founded to reverse these trends, a challenge it tackled from the very foundation: its business model. “We live in an age of crisis in the news media,” said White. Even though many have tried, relatively few solutions have yet been found. We firmly believe the solutions are there, and when they are found, they will be found in serving our members rigorously and loyally, even perhaps to the exclusion of all others.”
This move is part of a deliberate strategy to ensure that the company’s mission is not just a statement but a lived reality, reflected in every aspect of daily operations. White elaborated: “We’ve always been a mission-driven organization, but in the day-to-day rush of life and business, it can be difficult to keep your eye on why you’re doing this in the first place.”
“So I hope that becoming a public benefit company helps us make our mission even more present—a part of our day-to-day conversations and the minutiae of how we go about our professional lives.”
