The 19th launched as a nonprofit newsroom covering politics and policy through the lens of gender and race. We’re ready to expand our coverage to one of the most intersectional elements of American culture: women’s sports.
When The 19th began in 2020, the sports world was rattled by a growing pandemic. Though many leagues and tournaments were able to make COVID contingency plans, the NCAA’s March Madness was canceled.
Fans were hungry for basketball.
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In May, when the league typically tips off, all eyes went to the WNBA. Behind the scenes, officials and the players’ union negotiated how to safely operate under COVID. But players had another priority when it came to their return to the court. Two other national tragedies weighed heavily on the nation: the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police.
The W kicked off its delayed opener in July 2020 at Florida’s IMG Academy, where the entire league would create a bubble for the season. The “Wubble,” as it would come to be known, was just as much about social justice as it was about the return of basketball.
That season, players’ warm-up shirts read “Black Lives Matter” on the front and “Say Her Name” on the back. “Black Lives Matter” was painted on the court at the Wubble.
Six years later The 19th continues to interrogate who gets to hold power, who doesn’t and what decisions actually mean for people’s lives. Sports was not in our immediate game plan (sorry), but over the years it has become more evident how much stories like the WNBA’s social justice season, the fight for equal pay and the politicization of trans athletes belonged in our coverage.
So game on. We’re launching a sports desk.
We’ve grown in how we reach people: We’re in your inbox, in your feeds and increasingly on video, meeting audiences where they already are. That evolution has made us look hard at where our audience’s interests are going next, and where our journalism can fill a gap no one else is meeting.
In all of our beats, we strive to make our journalism distinct from the work of other newsrooms. We want to bring that spirit to sports coverage. Sports media has traditionally put what has happened on the field first. Far less of it asks who controls the leagues, who sets the pay scales, who’s protected (and who isn’t) by established rules, or how a player’s gender or race shapes the way they’re covered, paid and treated. These are the questions The 19th was built to ask.
We want to examine these leagues not just as sports and entertainment, but as burgeoning businesses, safe spaces for queer fans, and places where Black women hold outsize influence and set the bar on and off the field. As a newsroom focused on the intersection of race, gender and power, we are uniquely positioned to do this. We care about sports stories precisely because they are intersectional. For many of these athletes, their very existence and identity is political.
We’re making a bet that women’s sports will be one of the most powerful ways to reach new audiences in the next few years. We don’t want to just serve the audiences already tuned into it, we also want our stories to resonate with people who care deeply about representation and fairness — and just want to be informed about the culture. Sports is a common ground where so many of these conversations start.
This expansion also reflects how we’re evolving as a newsroom.
We’re looking for a writer, but also someone who can work across formats, especially short-form video, because social platforms are where so much of the conversation around women’s sports lives. We want a nimble, rigorous reporter with a passion for women’s sports and a keen interest in holding power to account. This person will be deeply sourced and knowledgeable about how the sports world works, using that to connect what is happening in leagues to wider cultural trends. They will be comfortable pivoting between contextual pieces on daily talkers and deeper enterprise reporting. They will also be comfortable on camera or demonstrate the ability to learn those skills.
You can apply here by November 16 at 12:00 p.m. CT.
As women’s sports has exploded in popularity, we want a dedicated reporter who will be ready to cover it with the depth and context our readers expect and that fans deserve. After all, everybody watches women’s sports — but do they understand what they’re seeing?
