The 19th*

The 19th came to us with a new brand and a big vision. They set out to create a nonprofit newsroom covering the intersection of gender, politics, and policy. Their goal was to empower readers — particularly women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community — with the information needed to be equal participants in our democracy. We couldn’t have been more eager to help them.

What We Did

  • Strategy
  • Web design
  • WordPress development
  • Dev Ops

What We Made

Website, Newsletter

Publicity

The Cut
The 19th executive team.
A collage of the 19th executive team, Elizabeth Warren on stage, and Sean Saifa Wall (Intersex Justice Project founder) at a protest.

As an entirely new publication, we understood that many folks’ first visit to the 19th would be to an article page and that they likely wouldn’t be familiar with the organization yet. We wanted to make sure anyone visiting the site could understand who they are and what they do right away. We also aimed to convert readers into newsletter subscribers and members as seamlessly as possible.

We designed a persistent sidebar that holds their logo, tagline, and a CTA for membership and newsletters. No matter what page readers arrive on or how far they scroll, this context and engagement opportunity is always present. By providing a dedicated space for these engagement tools, key calls to actions can’t be missed — and they don’t have to compete with editorial content for space.

We pinch ourselves at least once a week over the incredible foundation Upstatement built for us. It’s beautiful, functional and flexible for big and small news moments. Just what our startup needs.
Emily Swelgin
Director of Product, The 19th

We designed several other tools empowering editors to build engaging stories, increase revenue, and connect with a wide range of readers. Multiple homepage layouts allow editors to shift the display of their coverage for big news events like elections. Curated collections make it easy for their team to package news by theme and drive readers to coverage areas they’re interested in. Custom republishing tools help others republish any story on their own platform, making the 19th’s coverage visible to a wider audience. Flexible advertising placements drive revenue without sacrificing the reading experience. A modular newsletter template reaches readers in their inboxes while feeling visually consistent with the website. We built all of this with flexibility in mind, knowing the team, their site, and its coverage would surely need room to grow.

Our work with the 19th won World Changing Ideas for Fast Company.

Business Impact

With help from their new platform, The 19th exceeded their first-year goal for paying members by nearly 10x, contributing to the $6.67 million they were able to raise in 2020.

10x Memberships The 19th vastly exceeded their first-year goal for paying members.
$6.7M Fundraising Our work played an important role in The 19th’s inaugural fundraising.
Article from the 19th website titled: Biden campaign adds Karine Jean-Pierre as senior adviser. A figure from the 19th website that reads: Baby Bust: 3.75 Million. The birthrate in the United States fell to a 35-year low dropping 3.75 million babies born in 2019. Article from the 19th website titled: How this Philly pastor is steering her flock and family through coronavirus. Article from the 19th website titled: The outsize importance of Biden’s vice presidential pick. Illustration of a woman riding an elephant pointing forward. Site navigation menu on the 19th website. Article from the 19th website titled: Sen. Kamala Harris on coronavirus disparities and the veep question. Pull quote the 19th website that reads: We don’t recognize women’s roles and so we never ask, ‘Do women benefit?’.
Article on the 19th website on mobile with pull quote: We don’t recognize women’s roles and so we never ask, ‘Do women benefit?’. Article on the 19th website on mobile with title: America’s first female recession. Article on the 19th website on mobile with title: Philadelphia’s police chief on keeping her city and her family safe.

Upstatement has been designing and building digital platforms for important editorial voices for over a decade. Some clients include: