Julia Angwin, a ProPublica reporter who was developing startup tech site The Markup, has been forced out as editor in chief.
“I’m devastated to have been forced out of the organization I conceived to pursue rigorous, evidence-based tech accountability journalism,” wrote Angwin on Twitter. “I will continue to pursue that mission and I hope to find other ways to build the field.”
The staff of The Markup have signed a statement in support of Angwin.
“We joined on to the Markup because we believe in Julia Angwin’s work,” read the statement. “During our time here, we have benefited from her professional management style, and her effectiveness as both as manager and an editor. We are all inspired by her passion for investigative journalism, her instincts for news, and her strong ethical and moral compass.”
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has given $20 million to the site last year to get it up and running.
In a letter to Newmark, Angwin wrote that Markeup executive director Sue Gardner is seeking to change the mission of the newsroom to one of advocacy against tech companies.
“This approach is a direct repudiation of our promise to you and our other donors,” wrote Angwin. “I have repeatedly objected to these moves.”
The Markup also raised $2 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and $1 million collectively from the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Initiative.
Angwin started her journalism career as an intern at The Washington Post, followed by stints at two small wire-services in Washington D.C. She joined the San Francisco Chronicle in 1996 and was awarded a Knight-Bagehot fellowship in journalism for studies at Columbia Business School in 1998.
In 2000, she joined The Journal and began covering the convergence of technology and media. In 2003, she was on a team of reporters at The Journal that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for coverage of corporate corruption. In 2010, she led a team of reporters that chronicled the decline of online privacy in a series of articles titled “What They Know” that won the Gerald Loeb Award.
Cofounder and managing editor Jeff Larson has been named the new editor in chief.
