Reveal Digital

Name

Reveal Digital

Legal name

Reveal Digital (brand operated by ITHAKA)

Website

https://revealdigital.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open Access Primary Source Publishing

NAICS

Publishing Industries (513), Libraries and Archives (51921)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs (EDAGAFAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Topic/Interest-Based Content Discovery Apps (MPACAKAB)

Keywords

• Open access publishing
• Primary source collections
• Digital humanities
• Library crowdfunding
• Archival digitization

Headquarters

HQ city

Saline

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Library Crowdfunding: Reveal Digital operates on a crowdfunded model where academic libraries and cultural institutions provide funding to digitize and publish primary source collections. Once a collection reaches its funding threshold, it becomes freely available to all users on JSTOR in perpetuity. The company manages rights clearance, digitization, metadata description, hosting, and long-term preservation through Portico as part of this service.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Reveal Digital develops open, collaboratively funded primary source collections that surface under-represented voices from the 20th century and beyond, hosted on the JSTOR platform. Academic libraries and cultural institutions co-create collections through funding and content contributions, and once funding thresholds are met, collections are made freely available to all users on JSTOR in perpetuity with long-term preservation through Portico.

Product overview

Reveal Digital is a platform of open access primary source collections highlighting under-represented voices from the 20th century and beyond, hosted on JSTOR. The portfolio includes seven distinct collections: Independent Voices (a foundational collection of 1,000+ alternative press titles from the 1960s-1980s), Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements, Documenting White Supremacy and its Opponents in the 1920s, Black Periodicals: From the Great Migration through Black Power, American Prison Newspapers 1800s-present, Student Activism, and HIV, AIDS & the Arts. Collections are developed collaboratively with libraries and cultural organizations through crowdfunding and content contributions, with long-term preservation provided through Portico. Once funded, collections are made freely available on JSTOR in perpetuity.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Independent Voices: A foundational Reveal Digital collection bringing together more than 1,000 titles from the alternative press of the 1960s–1980s, featuring publications by feminists, anti-war activists, LGBTQ+ organizers, Indigenous advocates, and other historically underrepresented groups.
• Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements
• American Prison Newspapers 1800s-present: Voices From the Inside
• Student Activism
• HIV, AIDS & the Arts
• Black Periodicals: From the Great Migration through Black Power
• Documenting White Supremacy and its Opponents in the 1920s

Products and services

• Reveal Digital Open access primary source collections highlighting under-represented communities from the 20th century and beyond, developed through library crowdfunding and collaboration, hosted on JSTOR.
• Independent Voices Foundational collection bringing together more than 1,000 titles from the alternative press of the 1960s-1980s by feminists, anti-war activists, LGBTQ+ organizers, Indigenous advocates, and other historically underrepresented groups.
• Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movements Collection uncovering and digitizing grassroots histories of civil rights activism led by everyday citizens across Black, Latine, Indigenous, and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
• American Prison Newspapers 1800s-present: Voices From the Inside Open collection uniting hundreds of newspapers written and edited by people who were or are incarcerated across the U.S., offering a record of lived experience, creativity, and resistance behind prison walls.
• Student Activism Collection spanning more than a century of student organizing, capturing campus activism in the U.S. from civil rights and anti-war movements to feminist and LGBTQ+ advocacy.
• HIV, AIDS & the Arts Global collection documenting artistic and cultural responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis through visual art, performance, and personal archives.
• Black Periodicals: From the Great Migration through Black Power Collection bringing together periodicals capturing the intellectual, cultural, and political life of Black communities from the early 20th century through the Black Power era, featuring publications from the U.S., Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean.
• Documenting White Supremacy and its Opponents in the 1920s Collection documenting organized white nationalist movements and the individuals and organizations that resisted them, featuring local and national newspapers from Klan-affiliated to anti-Klan publishers.

Quantifiable outcome

• 1M+ pages of openly available content across 7 collections
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• PorticocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPortico provides long-term digital preservation services for Reveal Digital collections. Collections are preserved in perpetuity through Portico's preservation infrastructure, ensuring ongoing access to digitized primary sources.
• Libraries and Cultural InstitutionscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic libraries and cultural organizations partner with Reveal Digital to co-create collections through funding and content contributions. They shape each collection's scope and impact, and fund the digitization, rights clearance, and hosting of primary source materials.
• ITHAKAcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerReveal Digital is a product of JSTOR, which is part of ITHAKA, a nonprofit organization with a mission to improve access to knowledge and education. ITHAKA provides the organizational infrastructure and JSTOR platform for Reveal Digital collections.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Internet Archive: A nonprofit digital library preserving books, periodicals, audio, video, and web archives with open access. Overlaps with Reveal Digital on open access to digitized periodicals and under-represented materials, though Internet Archive operates at far broader scale across many content types.
• Gale: A Cengage company providing primary source archives (e.g., Gale Primary Sources) and digital research tools to academic and public libraries. Comparable on product type (digitized primary sources for libraries) but commercial and much broader in scope.
• EBSCO: Major aggregator of academic, library, and primary source databases. Comparable customer base (academic and public libraries) and partial overlap on primary source content, but EBSCO operates a broad subscription portfolio rather than a focused open access program.
• ProQuest: Major commercial provider of academic databases and primary source archives to libraries worldwide. Overlaps with Reveal Digital on primary source content and the academic library buyer, but operates at much greater scale across a broad content portfolio rather than open access.

Others

• Duke University Press: An academic publisher with significant open access monograph and journal programs, often partnering with libraries to fund open access titles. Comparable to Reveal Digital's library-funded open access model, though operating in journal and book publishing rather than archival primary sources.
• JSTOR: The JSTOR platform that hosts Reveal Digital and shares a parent organization (ITHAKA). They are infrastructure partners rather than direct competitors, but JSTOR also digitizes and provides access to scholarly journals and primary sources for similar library customers.
• OAPEN: An open access library for peer-reviewed books and monographs, supported by academic libraries. Thematically aligned with Reveal Digital through library-supported open access publishing, but focused on books rather than periodicals and archival primary sources.

Direct peers

• HathiTrust: A not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries providing digital preservation and open access to digitized collections. Closely comparable mission (long-term preservation of cultural materials, open access, library-led governance) and overlap on digitized periodicals and primary sources.
• Adam Matthew Digital: A Sage company specializing in primary source and archival collections licensed to academic libraries. Closely comparable to Reveal Digital in product type (digitized primary sources) and customer (academic and research libraries), though Adam Matthew operates a paid-licensing model rather than crowdfunding.
• Alexander Street: A ProQuest subsidiary publishing primary source archives, audio, and video collections for academic libraries. Directly comparable product offering (curated primary sources marketed to libraries) with overlap on alternative press, civil rights, and under-represented voices content.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@JSTOReducation
• Facebookfacebook.com/JSTOR.org
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/reveal-digital-llc
• Instagraminstagram.com/jstor_org

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Reveal Digital