Who We Are - The Margin

The Margin is a non-profit publication and an independent project at Counterstream Media that centers the people and places most affected by environmental injustice in the United States. Our stories expose the ongoing cycle of unjust actions that intentionally push the poor and people of color to the edge of society while driving our planet to the brink of collapse.

Founding Story

The Margin was founded in 2022 by Bryce Cracknell in partnership with the non-profit Earth Genome to center the hidden stories of the environmental justice movement; a movement that began 40 years ago in Warren County, North Carolina. 

To fully understand what we do at The Margin, a brief history of environmental justice is helpful. This work is possible thanks to the activists, organizers, and journalists whose shoulders we stand on:

Changemakers like the more than 500 residents of Warren County who were arrested for protesting a new hazardous waste landfill. Though toxic waste was ultimately deposited in the landfill, that moment sparked a movement that we strive to advance today.

Trailblazers like the 300 Black, Brown, Indigenous, and AAPI folks who gathered at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, held in Washington, D.C., in 1991 to redefine environmental issues in their own terms. Through consensus-building, they drafted the principles of environmental justice.

In the stories we produce, we see those who have been and are currently experiencing injustice. We see Warren County and Washington D.C., “Bloody Lowndes” and “Cancer Alley.” We see the communities where we live and many more that have been intentionally erased, exploited, and marginalized.

Our Approach

We are by, about, and for the voices and communities that endure environmental injustice. And we believe data reinforces and strengthens voices. For this reason, every story in The Margin combines personal narratives with data analysis and visualizations.

By pairing in-depth reporting with data, we aim to immerse readers in the issues, to look back historically and see how the landscape has changed, to understand where we are now, how we got here, and where we go next.

We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:

The Margin retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of the publication. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services, or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants, and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.

Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.

Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.