Natalie Delgadillo, Christina Sturdivant Sani and Martin Austermuhle deliver remarks at Friday's happy hour and launch of this fundraising campaign (Henry Kan)
I’m elated to announce that on July 1, I was hired as Executive Editor at The 51st!
After eight years of freelancing, it’s exciting to be back in local news full-time (plus, getting paid a living wage with benefits). Our reporting is already filling critical news gaps. My goal is to ingrain The 51st in the fiber of the city, so that D.C. natives, longtime residents, and newcomers alike can feel informed, heard, and connected.
To expand our coverage, we need to hire a full-time reporter — and there’s no better person we could think of than Martin Austermuhle.
While his byline is all over our site, he’s been working in a freelance capacity with us. This new full-time role will allow us to plan long-term projects and focus more on investigations, accountability journalism, and explainers. It'll also allow us to live up to The 51st's ethos: that means paying Martin a livable wage, offering benefits and time off, and treating our employees with the respect, dignity, and compensation they deserve!
That’s where you come in! Support by giving a one-time gift to our summer campaign:
Full transparency, we’re still a scrappy news outlet, so my position is only funded for one year. To extend my contract and bring Martin on full-time, we’re turning to you.
We’re asking you to donate to our crowdfunding campaign to raise $125,000, which will go toward our salaries and benefits. Not only will you be supporting local news and journalists, but you can also score some cool perks with your donation. Our deadline is August 8 and every dollar counts.
P.S. – We’ve made it this far thanks to so many of you who have supported and helped spread the word. Sharing this campaign and telling your friends and community makes a BIG difference!
Christina is an editor at The 51st, who's written for more than two dozen publications. As a staff writer at DCist, she wrote more than 1,600 stories about life in The District.
With your help, we pursue stories that hold leaders to account, demystify opaque city and civic processes, and celebrate the idiosyncrasies that make us proud to call D.C. home. Put simply, our mission is to make it easier — and more fun — to live in the District. Our members help keep local news free and independent for all:
