John K. Byrne (born March 24, 1981) is an American publisher and writer. He is co-owner of
Raw Story Media and
AlterNet Media, which publish the online progressive political news sites RawStory.com and AlterNet.org respectively.
Prior to Raw Story, he wrote briefly for ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' and
McClatchy Newspapers
The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...
and has been published in ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''.
Early life and education
Byrne was raised in a suburb of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
by Catherine and Jeffrey Byrne. Catherine Byrne is a circuit judge of the Massachusetts District Courts and Jeffrey Byrne is a retired family physician.
Byrne attended
Concord Academy
Concord Academy (also known as CA), established in 1922, is a coeducational, independent college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9-12. The school is situated in Concord, Massachusetts. In 1971, Concord Academy became ...
and graduated from
Oberlin College in 2003. At Oberlin College, he founded ''The Grape'', which remains the college’s alternative student newspaper. He was also editor of
The Oberlin Review
''The Oberlin Review'' is a student-run weekly newspaper at Oberlin College that serves as the official newspaper of record for both the College and the city of Oberlin, Ohio. It was first published in 1874, making it one of the oldest college n ...
, where he wrote an exposé about steroid abuse on the football team.
Career
During college, Byrne worked as a
stringer
Stringer may refer to:
Structural elements
* Stringer (aircraft), or longeron, a strip of wood or metal to which the skin of an aircraft is fastened
* Stringer (slag), an inclusion, possibly leading to a defect, in cast metal
* Stringer (stairs), ...
for ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' Northwest, a since-discontinued suburban section of the newspaper, and for
McClatchy Newspapers
The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...
as an intern in
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
.
Byrne founded RawStory.com, which was first published on February 1, 2004. The site was originally conceived as a liberal version of the
Drudge Report
The Drudge Report (stylized as DRUDGE REPORT) is a U.S.-based news aggregation website founded by Matt Drudge, and run with the help of Charles Hurt and Daniel Halper. The site was generally regarded as a conservative publication, though its ow ...
.
In the early years, Raw Story focused on reporting on anti-gay political figures who were themselves
closeted gay
''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other (LGBTQ+) people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual orientation identity ...
s. Byrne founded Raw Story when he was 23.
In 2010, Byrne stepped down as editor of Raw Story. He remains the company's CEO.
In 2018, Byrne and his business partner,
Michael Rogers, acquired the progressive news website
AlterNet
AlterNet is a left-leaning online news outlet. It was launched in 1997 by the Independent Media Institute. In 2018, the website was acquired by owners of '' Raw Story''.
Coverage
Coverage is divided into several special sections related to progr ...
from the nonprofit Independent Media Institute,
and The New Civil Rights Movement.
In 2022, John Byrne was named to the Out 100,
Out Magazine
''Out'' is an American LGBTQ news, fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any LGBTQ monthly publication in the United States. It presents itself in an editorial manner similar to '' Details'', ''Esquire' ...
's compilation of the year's most impactful and influential
LGBTQ+
' is an Acronym, initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term for Sexuality and gende ...
people.
[Out100 2022: 24 LGBTQ+ Titans of Media and Entertainment](_blank)
Out (2022)
Outing of political figures
Byrne and Rogers outed as gay numerous politicians and political staff who voted or advocated against gay rights in the mid-2000s.
Among the first was former Republican Congressman
Ed Schrock
Edward Lee Schrock (born April 6, 1941) is a retired naval officer (1964–1988) and American Republican politician who served as a member of the Senate of Virginia from 1996 - 2001. He also served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Jan ...
(R-VA). Byrne was also involved in the outing of
former Rep. David Dreier (R-CA).
HIV prevention advocacy
In 2015, Byrne began advocating for the promotion of
pre-exposure prophylaxis
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is the use of medications to prevent the spread of disease in people who have not yet been exposed to a disease-causing agent, usually a virus. The term typically refers to the use of antiviral drugs as a strateg ...
(PrEP) after a false positive
HIV test
HIV tests are used to detect the presence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), in serum, saliva, or urine. Such tests may detect antibodies, antigens, or RNA.
AIDS diagnos ...
.
His first campaign on
Miami Beach was covered by the ''
Miami Herald'', “I AM PrEP,” which involved posters created for bars and clubs and brochures for health centers. The campaigns were expanded into the
Latinx
''Latinx'' is a neologism in American English which is used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The gender-neutral suffix replaces the ending of ''Latino'' and ''Latina'' that are typical o ...
community and developed from passing out brochures to using online 'peer navigators' (influencers) on social media. In 2017, Byrne founded Prevention Access Campaign, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting PrEP in
Miami-Dade
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...
and
Broward counties. It was renamed Prevention305 the following year.
In 2019, Prevention305 helped start a mobile clinic which does cancer screening and PrEP in partnership with a local cancer center and the
University of Miami School of Medicine.
RAPID Services — Mobile PrEP Program
Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine
Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM) is the University of Miami's graduate medical school in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1952, it is the oldest medical school in the state of Florida.
Campus
The University of Miami's Leonard M. Miller Sch ...
References
External links
Prevention305.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, John K.
1981 births
Living people
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American male journalists
American male non-fiction writers
Concord Academy alumni
Oberlin College alumni
People from New York City