Dear friends of The Open Notebook,
Our birthday week is finally here! On FridayOctober 24TON turns FIFTEENand I’m thrilled to celebrate alongside youour incredible community.
For the past 15 yearsthe TON team and I have dedicated our work to empowering journalists to tell stories that matter. We envision a world in which all journalists have the skills and confidence they need to produce evidence-based reporting that engages and informs the public. Everything we do at TON stems from our commitment to supporting communityequityand professional growth.
We’ve published more than 600 articles—over 1.5 million words by our count!—on the craft of science writingcovering everything from the staples of our craft (how to write ledes and nut grafsread scientific papersinterview scientists) to reporting on complex topics (health disparitiessubstance usesexual misconductscience policy)to navigating the shifting landscape of our field (how to land and excel in internshipshow to ask for more moneyhow to overcome imposter syndromehow to cover science during periods of sociopolitical disruption)and manymany more topics.
More than 100 of these stories have been translated into Spanish by our TON en Español team—making our work more accessible to our extensive Latin American readership.
Several of our stories also appear in our book The Craft of Science Writing (expanded2nd edition published by the University of Chicago Press in 2024). In Spring 2026we’ll publish our newest bookThe Best Science Stories and How They Work—a collection of annotated science stories akin to our Storygrams series.
We’ve also produced a series of seven online Science Journalism Master Classes that you can take at your own pace to learn key concepts such as finding angles for any science storyspotting scientific hype and misinformationand centering people in science stories. Orif you’re pressed for timeyou can find the advice you need in our collection of tip sheetsScience Reporting Quick Tipsproduced in partnership with SciLineor our newly launched interactive toolkitthe Science Reporting Navigatorsupported by the Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Another pillar of TON’s work over the past 15 years is gathering communities and fostering the careers of hundreds of individual journalists through our fellowship programs and communities of practice for journalists at nearly every stage and experience levelincluding early-career journalistsjournalists from underrepresented backgroundslocal journalistsand international students.
Togetherall of our completely free resources have helped tens of thousands journalists from almost every country in the world sharpen their craft and find a supportive community dedicated to helping them thrive.
From Labor of Love to Global Community
None of this happened overnight. TON began as a spark of curiosity for me and my dear friend and colleague Jeanne Erdmannwith whom I co-founded The Open Notebook back in 2010. On many occasionswe’d read a stellar piece of science writing and wonderhow did they do that? Sowe started asking people: “How did you do that?” What started as a side project to create a small collection of story-behind-the-story interviews turned into a labor of lovewhich turned into what you know as The Open Notebook today.
Since those early daysthe TON team has grown to 15 editorial staff and nine board membersall committed to our mission of equipping journalists to cover science with accuracy and nuance.
As a teamwe’re keenly aware that now—more than ever—the world needs access to trustworthy information about science. We’re dedicated to coming alongside you as you do the important work of serving your audiences and holding power to account. TON is here for you in solidarityand we’re not going anywhere.
Celebrate with Us!
For nowwe have a lot to celebrateand we’re doing it BIG.
🎉 In Augustwe gathered with over 200 of you for our inaugural TON Town Hallwhere we featured our ongoing workpreviewed upcoming projectsand kicked off our 15th Anniversary fundraising campaign. (Access the recording herepasscode: R1&jrn@5)
👕 Thenyou askedwe provided: TON finally has merch! Fill your virtual cart with all things TON (Tote bags! Coffee mugs! Sweatshirts! Andof course…notebooks!)including our limited-run 15th birthday merch. (100% of proceeds go straight to producing our free resources.)
🥳 On Fridaywe’ll celebrate our birthday with a 15th Anniversary Day of Giving. We need YOUR support to keep producing free resources and developing new programs to serve the global community of journalists who cover science. We’ve set an ambitious goal of raising $10,000 in one day.
Through the generosity of our matching institutional partnersevery dollar raised today through Friday will be matched up to $5,500. We couldn’t do this without our amazing sponsors: Chemical & Engineering NewsHothouseKSJ & UndarkSTATThomas Lin (publisher of Quanta Books)and the Trans Journalists Association. Join us by donating to TON to help start this season of giving strong and have twice the impact for the future of science journalism.
🧁 Finallywe’d love to celebrate with you in person at Science Writers 2025 in Chicago. We’re meeting up at the Harp & Fiddle for a birthday party on SaturdayNovember 8 from 7-10 p.m.sponsored by the University of Chicago Press. We’ll serve light refreshments (and there’ll be a cash bar and food to order)and we’ll be giving away merch and a few free copies of The Craft of Science Writing.
We can’t wait to celebrate with you. Here’s to the next 15 years!
With gratitude,
Siri