In some ways, it’s an annual report, not terribly different from (if maybe less pretty than) the glossy retrospectives put out by all manner of organizations. We’re a for-profit business that shares some qualities of a nonprofit, in that we rely on and are deeply grateful for the collective contributions of our supporters. We always want more people to join our support base, and for current supporters to enhance their commitments.

In other ways, this report is something else. We want it to go deeper than a promotional document, acknowledging areas where we have room for improvement and the progress we’ve yet to make. Being accountable to our supporters means offering a level of transparency that we’d like to see from other media companies, including those that are privately held. And sometimes that means owning up to longstanding issues.