The Scoop
One of the top leaders at The Dispatch is out amid broader questions about the media organization’s future.
Mike Rothman, who joined the right-leaning digital outlet as its president in 2025, is leaving the media company, two people familiar with the move told Semafor. Rothman’s departure from the seven-year-old news site was in part due to his differences about its direction with founders Jonah Goldberg and Steve Hayes.
Rothman’s departure comes as the company has explored a potential sale.
Over the last several months, The Dispatch had been in discussions with Axel Springer about a potential acquisition, three people familiar with the talks told Semafor. The German media giant’s sudden purchase of The Telegraph earlier this year has satiated some of its appetite for major acquisitions, dampening the prospects for a potential sale in the near term, but one person familiar with the discussions said there remains some interest in a future deal.
Rothman, Goldberg, and Hayes did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for Axel Springer declined to comment on the company’s discussions with the Dispatch.
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Max’s view
The Dispatch occupies a unique position in the conservative media ecosystem.
The publication was launched in 2019 in the wake of the collapse of the Weekly Standard, where Hayes was editor-in-chief, and amid Trump-induced soul searching at the National Review, where Goldberg was a prominent editor. It has attempted to offer right-leaning news and opinion that supports conservative policies and occasionally dings Trump from a more traditional small government perspective, without alienating the president’s Republican supporters.
As I wrote last year, that’s left The Dispatch somewhat politically isolated: It’s viewed with skepticism by the diehard MAGA crowd, but garners a much smaller audience than publications like The Bulwark, the digital startup founded by former Republican media figures that has built a large business on Substack and YouTube through vocal criticism of Trump.
The Dispatch’s leaders seemed to recognize some of the limitations of their stance. The company made the decision last year to pivot and cater to right-leaning DC and business professionals, leaning into a business-to-business media model that would complement its existing political fare — and set it up to compete more directly with newsrooms like Politico, which Axel Springer owns.
The Dispatch acquired the popular legal site Scotusblog and launched Dispatch Energy, an editorial product focused on global energy markets and policy in Washington. Rothman told Semafor at the time that there was sponsorship demand for the Dispatch’s energy coverage, and he saw the publication “occupying a third-space that leverages the rigor typically associated with institutional media on one side and the trusted ‘experts’-experts’ of the creator economy on the other.”
The View From The Dispatch
In a statement to Semafor, Hayes said the founders “did not launch the company with the intention of one day being acquired — and we have no interest in discussing private conversations in the media — but we have been flattered by interest from potential partners over the years who appreciate our approach to journalism and want to invest in our continued growth.”
“We are focused on continuing to build out our editorial offerings, from the continued reinvigoration of SCOTUSblog to the launch of Dispatch Markets last month,” he said.