It is clear from the opening moments of “Breaking the News” that Emily Ramshaw, founder of The 19th*, has sharp instincts for what makes an irresistible story. As she tells directors Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston, and Chelsea Hernandez, it was the birth of her daughter Sophie that led her to look into building a news outlet to devoted to covering issues important to women, and as Sophie tugs at her chair as she’s pitching financiers, Ramshaw has the good sense to have cameras rolling even during the least glamorous parts of being a publisher, unsure whether to be heartened or dismayed by a Zoom meeting where one potential investor says in the same breath that he believes journalism to be dead, but then “I find great startups are founded in horrible times.” In March 2020 when the film begins, there would be no shortage of stories for them to cover at the start of COVID-19 lockdown and a looming presidential election, but it isn’t vanity for Ramshaw to think that establishing The 19th* during these headwinds is well worth following as well, and like any article the outlet itself would publish, the documentary comes at a chronicle of their first two years in operation from an angle you might not expect and with considerable rigor.
Set up as an independent nonprofit like Pro Publica or The Texas Tribune, where Ramshaw previously served as editor-in-chief, The 19th* is at once its own publication and a provider of news to the rest of the industry where cutbacks have been brutal, particularly to investigative reporting. Courtney, Hairston and Hernandez spend little time, if any at all, on the business model, or the sustainability of the endeavor from a financial perspective, and The 19th* needs little time to establish credibility, recruiting the widely respected reporter Erinn Haines from the AP who can nab the first interview with Kamala Harris upon being selected as Joe Biden’s running mate and Chebali Carranza from the Miami Herald whose first story for the 19th about “America’s First Female Recession” lands the front page of USA Today. Instead, what you see in “Breaking the News” is rare when the startup is operating from a place of strength as Ramshaw and co-founder Amanda Zamora aren’t seen worrying about where money is coming from or how to get scoops, but rather how to tend to the needs of a news-gathering organization that actually lives up to the standards they set up for themselves as far as inclusion.
“Breaking the News” does dutifully follow reporters as they work on stories that would appear to be underreported by other outlets in regards to race, poverty and the right to choose, but the filmmakers rightfully appear to be as interested in the blind spots within The 19th* itself, as Haines is often the only Black journalist seen in predominantly white Zoom calls, arguing for the newsworthiness of covering the tragic murder of Breonna Taylor at a time when her name was far less known than Ahmaud Arbery, and nonbinary LGBTQ reporter Kate Sosin struggles with feeling as if they’re a part of the publication that in touting itself as female-forward still attaches itself to old attitudes towards gender. If the goal of any news story beyond reporting the facts is to shift one’s perspective even just a little bit to think about something they hadn’t before, “Breaking the News” ends up doing just that, observing Ramshaw’s evolution as leader who learns to cede ground to others even after starting from a place of good intentions to begin with and as The 19th* becomes the first authors of history for a particularly turbulent time in America, it becomes galvanizing to think you’re seeing the future of journalism.
“Breaking the News” will screen at the Tribeca Festival at the Village East on June 9th at 6:30 pm and June 11th at noon.