This media startup is trying to reach readers exhausted by political noise
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Straight Arrow News, a small but ambitious digital news outlet, is betting on trust over outrage in a media landscape drowning in partisan noise. Founded by conservative Joe Ricketts and liberal Jonathan Harding, the company’s mission is simple: deliver unbiased, fact-based journalism that starts with the truth and lets readers form their own opinions. Chief Content Officer Derek Mead, a former Vice executive with deep experience in global journalism, joined in 2023 to transform the company from a high-volume aggregator into a publisher of original, deeply reported stories. He’s doubling down on investigative reporting, empowering reporters to build personal brands, and using video—both polished morning newscasts and raw TikTok-style explainers—to meet audiences where they are. The key to their strategy? Prioritizing loyalty over clicks, building a direct relationship with readers through a mobile app, and planning a future built on subscriptions, not ads. Mead argues that the real edge isn’t scale, but authenticity: a distributed, mission-driven team that listens to local voices and surfaces national trends before they explode. In a world where media trust is at an all-time low, Straight Arrow isn’t trying to be the New York Times—it’s trying to be the friend you actually want to read every day.
Shift from high-volume aggregation to original reporting: Straight Arrow News is investing in deep, original journalism instead of recycling news from other sources.
Empower reporters as personal brands: The company encourages journalists to build authentic followings on social media, even on their personal accounts.
Use video to meet audiences where they are: A polished morning newscast on YouTube targets early-day information seekers, while TikTok-style explainers serve short-form, conversational audiences.
Build loyalty through owned audiences: The company prioritizes its mobile app, push notifications, and community-building over ad-driven traffic from Google or Meta.
Plan for a subscription future: A metered paywall and premium content (like subject-specific newsletters and deeper reporting) are the path to financial independence from ad revenue.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
The Rise of a New Kind of Newsroom
The episode opens with a discussion on how journalists can use personal social media to amplify their work, setting the tone for Straight Arrow News’s mission to empower individual voices. The host introduces the company’s founding story: a bipartisan vision from Joe Ricketts and Jonathan Harding to combat media polarization.
From Aggregation to Original Reporting
“The challenge with that is, you know, we have really succeeded when we have really strong word of mouth. Like people who find us really like what we're doing. Like loyalty rates are really good, so on and so forth.”
The Power of Personal Branding in Journalism
“Creating a brand account for an individual person is like, it just doesn't make sense to me. I know there are people in media in the past who have thought, well, we're supporting this account so we should own it. That's so silly to me.”
Building Trust in a Noisy Media Landscape
“We have to be there for readers. And when you look at some of the institutions there they only view themselves as institutions which means that they have a gaze in whatever tower they're in looking down on the rest of the country and trying to be objective.”
Video as a Multi-Platform Strategy
The company uses two distinct video formats: a polished, eight-minute morning newscast on YouTube and raw, TikTok-style explainers. This dual approach allows them to meet audiences across different viewing habits.
“creating a brand account for an individual person is like, it just doesn't make sense to me. I know there are. people in media in the past to have thought, well we're supporting this account so we should own it. That's so silly to me.”
“We think that there's just a better opportunity for us in the long run to at least try to own the relationship with our readership, be accountable to our readership rather than being accountable to a generalized ad market and page views.”
“The challenge with that is, you know, we have really succeeded when we have really strong word of mouth. Like people who find us really like what we're doing. Like loyalty rates are really good, so on and so forth.”
Host
Guest
Straight Arrow News
organization
Derek Mead
person
Vice
organization
TikTok
other
YouTube
other
Joe Ricketts
person
Jonathan Harding
person
Jubilee
organization
Google Discover
other
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