How Stacker and The 74 Built a Blueprint for Better Education Coverage

When Stacker launched its Connect platform, the vision was clear: create a space where high-quality, editorially vetted stories could travel farther, faster, and more freely than ever before. But there was a challenge.

Most early contributors to Connect were smaller brands, and while they produced solid content, their names were unfamiliar to publishers, who were understandably skeptical. What Stacker needed wasn’t just volume of content: we needed voices with credibility. Stories that led with substance and made publishers pause and say, “We need more of this.”

At the same time, The 74, a nonprofit newsroom focused on America’s education system, faced a challenge of its own: reach. Their award-winning coverage on issues like education equity, immigrant student access, and STEM gaps for girls was widely respected, but largely confined to their core audience of policy insiders and education advocates. Getting their stories into local communities, especially underserved ones, was expensive, manual, and slow.

“It’s really hard to get people to stumble upon us unless they’re already paying attention to education.”
— Christian Skotte, The 74

That’s when the partnership between Stacker and The74 clicked. Stacker saw The 74 not just as another contributor, but as a bold, mission-driven newsroom that could help set the tone for the entire Stacker Newswire. The 74 saw in Stacker a new way forward: distribution at scale without compromising their values or overburdening their small team.

And so it began. One story at a time, The 74’s deep-dive education journalism entered the Stacker Newswire, and publishers responded. Articles about dual-language programs in immigrant communities, investigative dives into funding disparities, and profiles on innovative charter programs started landing in local papers, on radio affiliate websites, and even on TV station news blogs in towns where education reporting had long gone silent. The 74’s success became a proof point for Stacker. Skeptical publishers turned into believers. The Newswire was no longer just a content feed; it was becoming a platform for essential journalism. 

“The 74 leans into the tough stories. That’s exactly what we want on the Newswire.”
— Ken Romano, SVP of Product, Stacker

Behind the scenes, the ripple effects were just as powerful. Stacker began to introduce smarter filters based on topics and audience, from content relevant to parents and Black communities to Spanish-speaking readership. The 74 gained traction with new, unexpected audiences from hundreds of new placements.

“The happiest time is when I send a reporter a list of 150 outlets where their story ran. It builds morale in a tough industry.”
— Christian Skotte, The 74

SEO improvements followed. Domain authority climbed as stories from The 74 were picked up nearly 7,000 times, generating high-authority backlinks and improving search visibility. Readership increased by 5 percent, a meaningful lift for a niche nonprofit that helps justify donor support and expand the impact of their journalism. In total, The 74’s reporting reached over 1.2 million readers via the Stacker Newswire across the country, including in rural communities and legacy Black newspapers that often lack access to consistent education coverage. The human element made all the difference. Editors at The 74 described Stacker’s team as responsive, transparent, and editorially aligned - qualities rarely found in larger, more impersonal syndication platforms.

“Every single human being I’ve worked with at Stacker has been phenomenal — good professionals and good people.”
— Christian Skotte, The 74

And today? The partnership is evolving. The 74 is syndicating more content through Connect and even republishing select Stacker stories on their own site. And as education becomes an increasingly politicized battleground, their fearless reporting has never been more vital.

“With education so politicized, publishers need brave, thoughtful reporting. The 74 delivers.”
— Ken Romano, Stacker

What started as a pragmatic experiment has become a model: how two mission-driven organizations - one a newsroom, one an earned distribution engine - can unlock real impact together, for students, for parents, and for communities often left out of the national conversation.

It’s not just about syndication. It’s about building a better pipeline for public-interest journalism, and proving that scale and substance can go hand in hand.

You can read the full case study at this link.