The IX Advisory Board adds Renee Montgomery

So I am honored to welcome Renee Montgomery, who has utilized her platform to force this country to change on an almost unfathomable number of fronts, to our Advisory Board.

Renee gave up her livelihood in 2020 in pursuit of something bigger: she went out and saved our democracy. If that sounds improbable, you weren’t seeing the same election I was. You weren’t seeing what it means, what it continues to mean, that the vote in Georgia, the vote in this country, went the way it did.

Renee spoke up at a time that would have been difficult for anyone, with the part-owner of the Atlanta Dream, her last WNBA team, running to preserve the status quo. I hope I could publicly work for change with the eloquence and grace of a Renee Montgomery in a similar moment. But we don’t have to hope with Renee. We watched her do it.

That work continues, and it means everything to me that my friend Renee understands why and how The IX, and our 24/7/365 newsroom The Next, are part of this same struggle for a more equal world. A world where women’s sports are covered with the same fierce urgency as men’s sports allows the audience to fully engage, to come to love, respect and value these athletes as the multi-dimensional people they are.

Elevating women’s voices in our stories is the job. And training the next generation of journalists, while the diversity of our incredible group of writers and editors ensures that those who do this work both reflect America, and can fully tell the stories of women’s sports, is central to our mission.

The IX means every day, across five different women’s sports, our subscribers get a full picture, with context, of the landscape, a true women’s sports media network. Breaking news, analysis, exclusive interviews and curated links of the great work being done around the world on Soccer Monday (Annie Peterson), Tennis Tuesday (Joey Dillon), Basketball Wednesday (Howard Megdal), Golf Thursday (Sarah Kellam) and Hockey Friday (Erica L. Ayala).

And at The Next, 24/7/365, our 30+ writers and editors are obsessively bringing you all there is to know on women’s basketball on and off the court, never shying away from the vital work Renee and so many other women have done to change this country for the better in 2020.

100% of our revenue goes toward supporting those doing this work. When you join us, you help us pay for more of our time, to help us keep building. The goal is to make permanent the infrastructure that guarantees women’s sports coverage for years to come, and that a pipeline of journalists dedicated to this work, who have gone on to bylines in virtually every major publication in the country — The New York Times, The Athletic, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, major city newspapers and magazines — come with the knowledge and expertise to cover women’s sports the way it deserves.

And subscriptions are how we are funded, so we are responsive only to you, the reader. You’ll never have to wonder if we’re prioritizing women’s sports, because we only prioritize women’s sports.

But that work, while we are all proud of it in 2020, has just begun. And adding Renee’s voice to our Advisory Board, which already includes the incredible Megan Rose of USTA, Anya Packer of the NWHL and Julie Foudy of ESPN and the ‘99ers, among many other areas of American life, will serve as an intellectual, moral and emotional compass for the work ahead.

Welcome, Renee. We’re honored to be in the fight with you.

And for those of you reading this: if this work matters to you, join us as well.