The News
A right-leaning independent media company is hoping to pivot from a singular focus on politics and culture to deeper analysis of Washington and the federal government through a non-MAGA conservative lens.
The Dispatch, the website launched in 2019 by The Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes and National Review writer Jonah Goldberg, is hoping to complement its writing on politics with a business-to-business media model, acquiring preexisting niche politics media companies and building out verticals for Washington professionals. The company has launched more newsletters, hired editorial staff, revamped its website, and hosted in-person events, including an event on Thursday featuring Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
In a call last week, Dispatch President Mike Rothman told Semafor that the company is launching Dispatch Energy, a new editorial product that will cover global energy markets and narratives with less of a focus on climate change than many of its competitors. The vertical will be helmed by Roger Pielke Jr., an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow and Substacker; Lynne Kiesling, a Northwestern Law School economist and Department of Energy Electricity Advisory Committee member; and Philip Rossetti, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute. The vertical is launching with sponsorship from the Pacific Legal Foundation, and Rothman said the newsletter had already sold out its advertisements through the middle of next year.
The new launch comes just a few months after The Dispatch acquired SCOTUSBlog, the legal analysis website. Rothman would not disclose to Semafor how much The Dispatch paid, but he said that the company had “more than recouped the purchase price well ahead of schedule through sponsorships.”
“The Dispatch is for serious people who work in critical industries. As a media brand whose mission is to elevate depth, nuance, and original reporting in an algorithmic environment that rewards shouting, the vertical strategy provides a unique lane for The Dispatch to grow membership and revenue. We see The Dispatch 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.”
Max’s view
Launched in the wake of The Weekly Standard’s collapse and as The National Review searched for its identity amid Donald Trump’s rise, The Dispatch has spent the last several years attempting to offer conservative news that doesn’t totally alienate Republican readers who support Trump. It’s a tightrope walk that has left them somewhat politically homeless; they’re a bit too skeptical of Trump to be fully embraced by the MAGA crowd, and they have missed out on the exponential growth of never-Trump publications like the Bulwark or the Contrarian, both fronted by former Republican media figures who have found strong audiences by becoming vocal critics of the president.
Embracing a B2B angle is an interesting prospect, but a slightly risky one: Many conservatives and Republican decision-makers have long been served by more traditional center-right business publications like the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, as well as sources that attempt to keep explicitly partisan politics out of their policy and congressional reporting, such as Axios, Punchbowl News, and Politico Pro. Others, like the Washington Reporter, have tried to create a Punchbowl-style insider Capitol Hill outlet aimed specifically at reaching conservative members, their staff, and lobbyists.
Still, Rothman’s suggestion that the company has already made back its money on SCOTUSblog with plans to expand the publication and cover a court that presumably The Dispatch aligns with editorially seems like a promising indicator for its business and editorial direction.