The Scoop
An emerging partisan news organization on the left is seriously gearing up to impact the 2024 election.
On Monday, Courier Newsroom, a network of liberal news sites, will announce a new slate of national contributors and newsletters, video series, op-eds and podcasts that largely focus on “explaining, exposing, and fighting back against threats to our freedoms and democracy.”
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The team will be led by Kyle Tharp, a veteran of Democratic political campaigns and author of the FWIW newsletter, which focuses on the digital side of electoral politics. Former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob, online misinformation expert Melissa Ryan, independent Capitol Hill correspondent Michael Jones, and video creators Allan Piper, Liz Fleming and Maya May are all joining.
While the news organization is not explicitly partisan, it has deep ties to the Democratic party, and is part of a broader effort among liberals to create an alternative news ecosystem to counter the strength of conservative media.
The network of state-focused digital news sites is an attempt to fill some of the gaps left by the erosion of local news, as well as the recent collapse of some left-leaning digital news organizations. Courier has experimented with creating a hybrid funding model that relies on reader contributions, sponsors, and philanthropic and corporate underwriting.
Some big names will give it a boost: As part of its new national news push, Courier interviewed President Joe Biden last week, and will publish the interview on Monday on TikTok and Instagram.
