Dear friends of The Open Notebook,
Our birthday week is finally here! On Friday, October 24, TON turns FIFTEEN, and I’m thrilled to celebrate alongside you, our incredible community.
For the past 15 years, the 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 community, equity, and professional growth.
We’ve published more than 600 articles—over 1.5 million words by our count!—on the craft of science writing, covering everything from the staples of our craft (how to write ledes and nut grafs, read scientific papers, interview scientists) to reporting on complex topics (health disparities, substance use, sexual misconduct, science policy), to navigating the shifting landscape of our field (how to land and excel in internships, how to ask for more money, how to overcome imposter syndrome, how to cover science during periods of sociopolitical disruption), and many, many 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 (expanded, 2nd edition published by the University of Chicago Press in 2024). In Spring 2026, we’ll publish our newest book, The 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 story, spotting scientific hype and misinformation, and centering people in science stories. Or, if you’re pressed for time, you can find the advice you need in our collection of tip sheets, Science Reporting Quick Tips, produced in partnership with SciLine, or our newly launched interactive toolkit, the Science Reporting Navigator, supported 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 level, including early-career journalists, journalists from underrepresented backgrounds, local journalists, and international students.
Together, all 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 Erdmann, with whom I co-founded The Open Notebook back in 2010. On many occasions, we’d read a stellar piece of science writing and wonder, how did they do that? So, we 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 love, which turned into what you know as The Open Notebook today.
Since those early days, the TON team has grown to 15 editorial staff and nine board members, all committed to our mission of equipping journalists to cover science with accuracy and nuance.
As a team, we’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 solidarity, and we’re not going anywhere.
Celebrate with Us!
For now, we have a lot to celebrate, and we’re doing it BIG.
🎉 In August, we gathered with over 200 of you for our inaugural TON Town Hall, where we featured our ongoing work, previewed upcoming projects, and kicked off our 15th Anniversary fundraising campaign. (Access the recording here, passcode: R1&jrn@5)
👕 Then, you asked, we provided: TON finally has merch! Fill your virtual cart with all things TON (Tote bags! Coffee mugs! Sweatshirts! And, of course…notebooks!), including our limited-run 15th birthday merch. (100% of proceeds go straight to producing our free resources.)
🥳 On Friday, we’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 partners, every dollar raised today through Friday will be matched up to $5,500. We couldn’t do this without our amazing sponsors: Chemical & Engineering News, Hothouse, KSJ & Undark, STAT, Thomas 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.
🧁 Finally, we’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 Saturday, November 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