A former New York Times journalist has built a new media company to go against traditional news media.
Key Details
- Former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss has launched The Free Press as a media outlet to go against the norms of traditional media.
- The company garnered 105,000 Twitter followers and 25,000 free and paid subscribers in less than a week.
- “I’m responding to a demand, and I’m expanding based on the hunger of the audience. And that hunger and appetite are just huge. We’re at the very, very beginning of what this could be,” says Weiss.
Why it’s news
Recently, former Times columnist Weiss launched The Free Press, which has quickly shot to popularity, gaining thousands of followers and subscribers.
Weiss left the Times in July 2020 and, not long after, created a newsletter on Substack titled Common Sense, which quickly became popular, amassing 283,000 free and paid subscribers.
Weiss and co-founder Nellie Bowles decided to rebrand the newsletter to become The Free Press which has worked out considering the recent following the company has amassed.
The Free Press was released four days earlier than expected due to the popularity surrounding Weiss’ “Twitter Files” reporting where she outlined Twitter’s “secret blacklist” amongst other things.
The point of the media outlet is to provide non-traditional media coverage for people tired of the typical posts that news outlets contain.
“I think there’s a lot of people in this country who are politically homeless, who feel like the old labels—Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal—no longer fit them or no longer mean what they used to,” says Weiss.
The media outlet is up and coming as the company has hired ten full-time employees and over a dozen contractors to help continue to build the company.
The Press has also begun its first marketing campaign with posters in large cities, including Los Angeles and New York City, with more coming to Austin and San Fransisco.
Weiss has big plans for The Free Press, including adding other newsletters, podcasts, and other exciting news facts, all under the Free Press name.
