The News
A new Washington, DC, digital news startup is expanding beyond reporting into opinion journalism.
On Monday, NOTUS will launch “Perspectives,” a new opinion-focused effort by the publication built around editorial “symposiums,” op-eds on evergreen topics from an array of voices and perspectives.
In a call with Semafor on Monday, editor Richard Just said the publication hopes to tackle “ideological fragmentation,” which he said is keeping people in power shielded from the views of serious political figures, writers, and academics that they may disagree with.
He argued that the major opinion pages have drifted away from including a broad range of perspectives, while many of the best opinion writers have chosen to write for smaller, higher-paying but more niche audiences, depriving the broader public of their work.
“There’s an opening in the market for genuinely cross-ideological opinion journalism, like a site that is truly read and taken seriously by both sides of the aisle,” Just said. “So much of the good opinion journalism right now is kind of trapped in this Substack world. It’s been wonderful for opinion journalists, they can make a good living. But unless you subscribe to 100 Substacks, you’re not getting that diversity of opinion and the kind of broad range of voices that people used to turn to opinion pages to get.”
NOTUS said its opinion efforts will be focused on short “symposiums” published weekly, along with longform reported opinion pieces published semiregularly. The publication’s first Perspectives pieces — on AI, Trump’s foreign policy wins and losses, and higher education — will include contributions from elected officials and influential political actors, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bill Cassidy, and Todd Young, Rep. Elise Stefanik, and LinkedIn founder and political donor Reid Hoffman.
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Since launching last year, NOTUS (News of the United States) has grown its profile and readership within Washington.
In Monday’s conversation, NOTUS CEO Arielle Elliott did not disclose any financials, but said that the publication’s free subscriptions had doubled in the last six months, reaching 85% of congressional offices. She also said it had increasing revenue in event sponsorships, a primary driver of NOTUS’ nascent business.
The publication is one of many fighting for a slice of premium Washington ad and subscription dollars. Publications including Politico, Axios, Punchbowl, and Puck have all built bespoke events and subscription businesses aimed at reaching lobbyists, congressional offices, and federal government officials. (Semafor has also built a growing DC business around sponsored events.)
What is distinct about NOTUS is its structure. The organization has a partnership with the nonprofit Allbritton Journalism Institute, which sponsors a multi-year class of 20 fellows who work closely with professional journalists in the newsroom. That influx of young, hungry journalists hoping to make a name for themselves has allowed the publication to flood Capitol Hill with more reporters than many of its competitors; NOTUS’ 40 full-time editors, reporters, and reporting fellows have concentrated most of their efforts on reporting out stories in Washington, with a focus on Congress.