The Morning Context is now over a year old, and along with the usual trials and tribulations that form a startup’s trajectory, came the business impositions that the pandemic threw at us. Nevertheless, we persisted. 

As a young media startup, we’re constantly thinking about monetization and building a sustainable business model that is in sync with keeping our journalism independent. This, to be sure, is more like a three- to five-year plan. What we do have as an unequivocal measure of success is a fantastic, well-engaged community of paying subscribers, who have forced us to raise our game every single day. Subscriptions are the only way we’re currently earning revenue, but not all of our subscribers are paying subscribers. Today we have more than 25,000 readers on our Starter plan. Where we are constantly working on putting our best journalism before them.

So, after a lot of thought, we’re now bringing on board companies to sponsor our stories and newsletters with the singular objective that our best, public interest journalism reaches an audience beyond just our paying subscribers. This effort begins with Firework India. Firework is the world’s largest short video stories platform empowering digital properties, apps and connected TVs to adopt and implement vertical short video stories.

We believe that this is a win-win-win; we’re picky about the companies that can engage with you, so as to ensure some value for you, dear reader. These companies will have the opportunity to reach out to a hugely engaged and exclusive community, and for The Morning Context, we can continue to do our best, secure in the knowledge that our stories and our journalism get the wider platform they deserve.

What we’ve heard from some of the companies we are working with has been encouraging—they’re always looking to partner with entities that have vibrant communities and are seen as living, breathing organisms rather than faceless media entities.

Once again, thanks for your trust in The Morning Context. This is just one more step in our mission to serve just one person, you the reader.