REPORT FOR READERS
A PEEK BEHIND-THE-SCENES AT THE FREE LANCE'S FUNDING AND READERSHIP
Lock box for donations maintained by occupiers during Occupy Wall Street. Photo credit: JB Nicholas..
Apr. 2, 2025
It's been a while since The Free Lance last reported to readers. Now is a good time to fix that.
The conclusion of the strike by New York State prison guards on Mar. 10 makes this a natural inflection point because it capped a non-stop marathon of Free Lance reporting since news of Robert Brooks killing by prison guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York broke in December.
The Free Lance's readership grew exponentially in the last four months. Since it published its first report on Brooks' killing on Dec. 26, The Free Lance was read by 57,000 unique readers during 65,000 visits for a total of 78,000 page views.
The most-read story was Gov. Kathy Hochul Unleashes F-Bomb Barrage on Striking Prison Guards, with 12,125 reads. That was followed by Nurse Who Lost Child Working Inside Prison Now Focus of 22 Day Wildcat Strike by Guards (8,018 reads) then Prison Guard 'Beat-up Squad' Killer Robert Brooks, Operated for Years, Attorney General Letitia James's Office Knew It (5,362).
Between Jan 1 and Dec. 26, 2024, The Free Lance had 33,000 visits by 28,000 unique visitors for 43,000 page views. During this time The Free Lance was focused on reporting the Palestinian insurgency against Israel.
We made time to publish Drive-Thru Belly Ring Piercing at New York Burger King Prompts Pranks, Police on Mar. 24, which was the most-read report in 2024 before Brooks' killing with 6,628 reads.
The Free Lance published 16 exclusives related to Brooks' killing and the strike that started on Feb. 17. (The Free Lance defines exclusive as original reporting no other news organization or journalist has published at the time The Free Lance publishes the report.)
Relatedly, despite breaking 16 exclusives, not a single mainstream news organization credited The Free Lance with its original reporting. Per journalist ethics and convention, other journalists are supposed to credit the journalist or news organization who first broke a story with doing so to avoid allegations of plagiarism.
The list of news organizations who did not give The Free Lance first reporting credit is long and notably includes the New York Times.
The Free Lance also sued in State Supreme Court to open the administrative employee disciplinary hearings for the guards accused of killing Brooks to the public and press (they are currently secret). The lawsuit is fully submitted and a decision is expected soon.
Financially, The Free Lance received $622 in donations from 13 people since Dec. 21. Three people gave repeatedly. Amounts ranged from $2 to $100.
In addition, after The Free Lance was partially paywalled in March, 13 people subscribed for the month for $5. The Free Lance considered the partial paywall an experiment. The experiment is now ended and there is no paywall.
While reporting on Brooks’ killing during this time, we worked an average of 12 hours a day for 81 days for a total of 972 hours. Divided by the donations and subscritption revenue received, I earned an average of $1.41 per day—less than what I earned working in prison law libraries as a law clerk between 1991 and 2003 ($1.55 per day).
Still, it is a point-of-pride that The Free Lance is wholly produced by formerly-incarcerated labor.
Looking forward, The Free Lance will continue to aggressively investigate the New York State prison system and closely cover the prosecution of Brooks' killers.
The Free Lance will also return to its other focus areas that it neglected during its three-month-long dive deep into Brooks' killing, the state prison system and the strike—particularly the environment.
We returned with a bang to the green beat with my personal account of finishing New York's Long Path—a long-distance hiking trail that goes from a New York City subway station to the Adirondacks.