Uber, Google and four other commercial giants have just paid big for ‘money can’t buy’ positive news coverage, in a deal which will leave millions of Londoners unaware of who’s paying for their news.

Last week, openDemocracy broke the story of how the brazen £3 million deal with London’s Evening Standard newspaper – edited by former chancellor George Osborne – will make news and advertising indistinguishable. It’s already making global headlines.

But unless we push for a bigger impact, it’ll be back to business as usual.

This story matters.

For a start, Uber is fighting to defend its licence to operate in London.

Google claims to care about media standards, and has thrown millions at its own Digital News Initiative.

Yet both are shelling out £500,000 for this ‘money can’t buy’ news deal to burnish their reputations – with readers unaware of where news ends and advertising begins.

Unlike the Standard, openDemocracy doesn’t sell positive coverage to big businesses. We’re not driven by clicks or profit margins, and we don’t put up paywalls either.

We rely on readers like you who understand that democracy requires fearless journalism.

Whatever you contribute really will make a difference. It helps us offer better job security to our small, hard-working team.

It will help us to chase down more leads and break more stories like this one, even when others won’t.

And it will help us to plan ahead, so we can bring you more of the voices and perspectives that matter.

Join us, and together we can build the media we need.

Thank you,

Mary Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief, and the openDemocracy team