Last year, freelance journalist and National Geographic alum Michael Greshko predicted that a worker-owned science publication would be born in 2024. On Thursday, his prediction came true with the launch of Sequencer.

Sequencer is looking to fill a gap that’s been created by the withering of science desks at newsrooms across the country. The four founders — Max G. Levy, Dan Samorodnitsky, Shi En Kim, and Maddie Bender, all of whom are alums of Massive Science, which stopped publishing in 2021 — write that “traditional science media is broken” in a letter introducing the site:

Bedrock science publications are dying. Or rather, they’re being actively killed by layoffs, predatory venture capital firms, and mega-conglomerates that keep inexplicably pivoting to video. It would be funny if it weren’t so bleak.

As journalists, doing nothing in this moment felt tantamount to endorsing a dysfunctional status quo. Despite the state of our industry, we’re chronic optimists who are convinced that there are other models for quality science journalism—one that serves writers and readers better.

Sequencer is our idea of an alternative.

If the first stories — about sexual conflicts in alpine flowers, a meditation on how we depict our planet, and an introduction to one of the writers’ cats — are any indication, the site will be home to some delightful, wondrous science writing.

@Sequencermag is the place I have always wanted where I could write weird, angry, funny, goofball shit about science. Our most popular article @massivesci was about Butts. We had an entire theme month, Butt Month.https://t.co/Ee13cVYSC8

— Dan Samorodnitsky (@d_samorodnitsky) March 21, 2024

To begin, the site will publish on a weekly schedule, and for good reason:

Oh I forgot: @sequencermag is on a weekly schedule. We are all freelancers and have received no funding or investments (not for lack of trying). Posts and newsletters go out weekly, with blogs thrown in when we feel like it. Please be patient: we don’t know what we’re doing.

— Dan Samorodnitsky (@d_samorodnitsky) March 21, 2024

Like its worker-owned brethren (see: Defector, 404 Media, Hell Gate, Aftermath, and more), Sequencer plans to be reader-supported, with subscriptions starting at $7 per month. I, like many others in the world of science journalism, am incredibly excited. Read more here.