Editorial Guidelines for We Are The Mighty

Mission

We Are The Mighty celebrates service through great storytelling. Launched in 2014, founders Linda Alexander and David Gale saw how special the military community is and believed the community deserved its own corner of the internet, dedicated to inspiring, educating, entertaining and informing its unique audience. We profile veterans doing incredible things, find untold tales of famous battles, celebrate history, aviation, tanks, all things tactical, our mighty heroes, and of course, entertainment and great memes.

We aim to please with funny, entertaining, inspiring, exciting, meaningful and powerful stories. That is what our audience has come to expect and we deliver these stories daily on our platforms.

WATM creates authentic, entertaining content unique to the military-veteran community as a way to connect service members, share their memories, reflect on their service and honor those who serve us every day.

Since 2015, WATM has honored the “MIGHTY 25,” 25 individuals in the military community who are going above and beyond to serve others. Our editorial team scours the planet to identify the changemakers in the veteran, active duty and military family space and we debate for months who should make the final cut. 

Selectees are advocates utilizing their influence and voices to impact policies; entrepreneurs with a passion for service; disrupters forcing accountability and meaningful change; volunteers giving so much of themselves to better the lives of others; and leaders whose vision and actions inspire us all. Some of our MIGHTY 25 are celebrities, some of them are names you’ve never heard. Without equivocation, they are all making a profound impact not just on our community, but on the world. 

We Are The Mighty is led by Editor in Chief Tessa Robinson. Robinson is the author of the award-winning New York Times “Deployment Diary.” Preceding her time at WATM, she served as Managing Editor for Spouse & Family at Military.com and Managing Editor for Branded Content at Task & Purpose. Prior to her pivot to journalism, Robinson spent over a decade with the federal government in emergency response and recovery and intelligence. She also coaches 7th grade basketball. Robinson’s favorite stories are always the features of the MIGHTY 25 or anything that makes her laugh. Connect with Robinson on Linkedin, or send her a message at Editor@wearethemighty.com.

Editorial Independence 

At Recurrent Ventures, we believe our “audience first, revenue second” ethos cannot function without editorial independence driving everything we do. Our platforms are built on a foundation of audience trust.

Consequently, editorial decisions are made free of interference from anyone outside editorial and content management. Our editors, writers, video producers, content leads, and social media managers have explicit control over our content.

Any other employees, such as those in product, HR, advertising, business development, or senior stakeholders, such as company owners and investors, cannot mandate—through either direct conversation or other influence—the content we publish. Advertisers, direct or otherwise, have no sway over editorial content. We work to adhere to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. 

Transparency, Disclosures, and Conflicts of Interest

Our “audience first, revenue second” principle means we act in our readers’ and viewers’ best interests above all else; operate transparently with our methods; avoid conflicts of interest and disclose business relationships; and make sure our audiences know exactly what they’re getting from us.

Our teams are required to be clear about any relationships we have that might appear to influence our coverage. No staff member shall have financial interests in an area they cover, including shares in a company relevant to their subject matter. 

Products we test are used for content creation, and we always offer to return products to manufacturers after testing. Staff members and regular contributors are forbidden from accepting compensation from entities they cover. Likewise, staff members and contributors are forbidden from selling any products they obtain for reviews.

Recurrent earns commissions through our product review links, which we disclose in each story that contains affiliate links. Our product reviews and recommendations are solely guided by our expertise, research, and experience; any “sponsored reviews” or deals will be clearly marked as such.

Furthermore, any branded or sponsored content will be clearly labeled. Recurrent’s various publications may engage editorial staff members with this content in different ways, but transparency will never be in question.

Accuracy & Accountability

Our team at We Are The Mighty works hard to deliver great content every day. While we really want to make sure you’re entertained, more than anything, we want to make sure we’re telling you the truth. Every word we publish is read by a senior editor who does their best to ensure we’re providing our readers with information that’s helpful, factual and relevant. 

We also are 100% run by humans. No bots or AI here. Unfortunately for all of us, humans make mistakes, but we own when we do. If you see an error, please let us know. We’ll review and if we screwed up, you’ll see that reflected in the article. If we stand by our claims and research, we’ll let you know our sources and why. Our writers are exceptional and we believe in their work. We also know some of them eat crayons.

Sustainable Creativity

At Recurrent, we love journalism, and we love journalists. That’s why we’re committed to building, growing, and improving a workplace culture that supports the careers, health, and well-being of the people who create our articles, videos, podcasts, tweets, and everything in between. To us, that manifests in two ways:

Prioritizing compassion. Media is a tough business, and the internet is an especially grueling place to work. Our managers run newsrooms based on the idea that a climate of dignity and respect produces the best work. At the same time, our leave, vacation, and holiday schedules are designed to give journalists the time they need to unplug and reboot. 

Building a community of journalists. We’re all as dedicated to the success of each individual brand as we are to the growth and development of individual journalists. Editors and writers at our various publications celebrate one another’s wins as much as they support one another through challenges. This means our brands are committed to regularly collaborating, exchanging tips and ideas, and pushing one another to do our best work.