CJR's Guide to Online News Startups

1. Results

   Organizations filtered by Politics.

1. Oct 25, 2011 11:54 AM

   Burnt Orange Report

   A political news blog's move from undergraduate pursuit to progressive stalwart

   By Tyler Jones

   AUSTIN, TEXAS — In 2002, Republicans gained control of the Texas state legislature for the first time in over a century, allowing then-congressman Tom DeLay a chance to push for an unprecedented voter redistricting that would give Texas Republicans a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. With few progressive watchdogs online in the Lone Star State, undergraduate students at the University of Texas stepped...

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2. May 12, 2011 03:45 PM

   CTNewsJunkie

   Giving the good stuff to Connecticut's political insiders

   By Alex Fekula

   WINDSOR, CONNECTICUT — Like many married couples, Christine Stuart and Doug Hardy share a weekly ritual. Unlike most married couples, theirs involves obsessing over state politics. Stuart and Hardy spend their Thursday nights preparing the "Friday Night Fix." The "Fix" is a weekly e-mail roundup of Connecticut political news, covering everything from the state's most recent budget battle to the fate of a particular piece of...

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3. Jan 5, 2011 08:47 PM

   DoD Buzz

   A (mostly) one-man show reporting on the Pentagon

   By Michael Meyer

   WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — Structurally speaking, DoD Buzz is little more than a personal blog dressed up as a full-on news publication. The remarkable thing is that, were it not for more than three-quarters of the stories on the site having the same byline, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. That's true in terms of volume and quality of content, anyway....

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4. Dec 8, 2010 03:40 PM

   FactCheck.org

   A "consumer advocate" for voters

   By Justin Yang

   PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — In a world of 140-character tweets and political attack ads posted on YouTube, information has become easier to access and easier to release. It's also become more difficult to discern between what information is true and what is false. FactCheck.org rose to the challenge of making those calls in political discourse leading up to the 2004 election and has continued to...

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5. Jun 20, 2011 04:22 PM

   FITSNews

   Impolitic South Carolina political news

   By Joel Meares

   COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — In May 2010, Will Folks, the onetime spokesman for South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, sparked a sex scandal as juicy as his former boss's trip to the Appalachian Trail (by way of Buenos Aires). That month, Folks claimed he had had an "inappropriate physical relationship" with State Representative Nikki Haley--then running in a competitive Republican primary for...

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6. May 30, 2012 01:58 PM

   Florida Voices

   A digital editorial page for the Sunshine State

   By Annie Wu

   TAMPA, FL — In 2008, Rosemary Goudreau was laid off as editorial page editor of the Tampa Tribune. She found work in public relations, but missed the constant immersion in issues and ideas afforded her by life in a newsroom. "On the other side of the fence, I saw the need for a place that made it easy to know what people were talking about, and for...

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7. Jul 27, 2011 02:48 PM

   Gotham Gazette

   Detailed reporting on New York City governance

   By Connor Boals

   NEW YORK, NEW YORK — It's no secret that many Americans are shamefully uninformed about their elected representatives, particularly at the local level. The blame for this can often go as much to local press as to citizens themselves, but thanks to Gotham Gazette, an online source for what's happening in the world of NYC government, citizens of the nation's largest metropolis will...

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8. Apr 2, 2012 03:42 PM

   Missouri Journal

   Government and political news for the Show Me State

   By Tom Marcinko

   ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — Corporations are people? Maybe, but Brian R. Hook is both. As owner and sole staff member of the online-only Missouri Journal, he covers Missouri politics with the Show-Me State's well-known skepticism. As a corporation, he is B. R. Hook.com, a media development and consulting firm. "I will be consulting on 'Here's how to do online media,'" Hook...

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9. May 9, 2012 02:13 PM

   Missouri Scout

   Subscription-based niche political news from a stockbroker turned political junkie

   By Jason Rosenbaum

   ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — Dave Drebes didn't take the most conventional path into journalism. Originally a stockbroker, the St. Louis native decided to jump into newspaper publishing in 2001. Drebes and a friend wrote several articles and opinion pieces about the flaws in the St. Louis Board of Aldermen's contentious, racially charged redistricting plans. They printed the articles on a broadsheet and sent the publication...

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10. Apr 3, 2012 02:28 PM

    National Institute on Money in State Politics

    Tracking political donations and their influence in all fifty states

    By Maura R. O'Connor

    HELENA, MONTANA — Edwin Bender believes that building a database is like writing a really good story. "What fascinated me about being a journalist was getting down and taking evidence and saying 'this is what I see,'" says Bender. "When I first started building databases it was like reporting a story. Standardizing names and sorting them, finding out who worked for a bank when they...

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11. Mar 24, 2011 04:04 PM

    Nebraska Watchdog

    Think tank-funded investigations for the Cornhusker State

    By Brendan Buhler

    LAVISTA, NEBRASKA — Nebraska Watchdog, which launched in September 2009 with longtime newsman Joe Jordan as its sole employee, is a one-man shop focusing on investigative and statehouse news in the Cornhusker State. The site is part of a network of sites around the country that share the Watchdog name. Jordan spent twenty-nine years as a political and investigative reporter for KMTV CBS in Omaha,...

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12. Mar 24, 2011 04:45 PM

    Nevada News Bureau

    Franklin Center-affiliated statehouse news for the Battle Born State

    By Brendan Buhler

    HENDERSON, NEVADA — The Nevada News Bureau is a nonprofit organization launched in October 2009 to cover state politics and statehouse news and provide its work free of charge to other outlets in the Battle Born State. It was originally formed under the auspices of Citizen Outreach, a conservative nonprofit organization run by Chuck Muth, Nevada's leading conservative anti-tax activist. Elizabeth Crum, formerly Citizen...

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13. Dec 29, 2010 03:17 PM

    NJ Spotlight

    Trenton's statehouse startup

    By Lauren Kirchner

    TRENTON, NEW JERSEY — NJSpotlight.com, which CJR profiled in September 2010, is a policy-focused news site based in the Trenton, N.J. state house. Launched in early 2010 by two former Newark Star-Ledger reporters, John Mooney and Tom Johnson, the site focuses on issues relating to the state budget, environmental and energy legislation, education policy, and health care. "We are nonpartisan, independent, policy-centered and community-minded," says...

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14. Dec 21, 2011 11:23 AM

    NMPolitics.net

    State politics from southern New Mexico

    By Michael Meyer

    LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO — In the spring of 2006, Heath Haussamen was working for the Las Cruces Sun-News in southern New Mexico, an ambitious young reporter covering courts, crime, and local politics amid one of the quieter media markets in the country. Las Cruces is part of New Mexico's second congressional district, which is home to just over 600,000 people living in...

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15. May 20, 2011 01:35 PM

    OpenSecrets.org

    Exhaustive reporting on money in politics

    By Daniel Luzer

    WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — In 1983, Senators Frank Church (D-Idaho) and Hugh Scott (R-Pa.) founded the Center for Responsive Politics in order to "track money in politics and its effect on elections and public policy." This government watchdog eventually gave birth to OpenSecrets.org, a searchable database of campaign contributions and a center for investigative journalism about money in politics. <!-- OPEN CLOSE top...

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16. Mar 24, 2011 03:12 PM

    Peach Pundit

    Conservative local political commentary from the founders of RedState

    By Chris Benz

    ALPHARETTA, GEORGIA — With its simple design and lively comments section, Peach Pundit resembles many right-leaning political opinion blogs. What may set it apart is its pedigree: Clayton Wagar and Erick Erickson, both among the founders of conservative mega-site RedState, founded Peach Pundit in 2005 as a side project. The site covers Georgia state and local politics with a conversational flair, but,...

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17. Dec 21, 2011 11:43 AM

    Plains Daily

    Right-leaning reporting for North Dakota

    By Erik Shilling

    FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA — Plains Daily debuted in March 2010, the brain child of North Dakota conservative talk-radio host Scott Hennen, who was previously best known around the state for interviews with former vice president Dick Cheney and presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, among others. Bachmann has been a particularly vocal supporter, calling him the "voice of today's Tea Party patriots,"...

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18. Oct 31, 2011 11:46 AM

    Plunderbund

    Ohio state politics from a progressive point of view

    By Alysia Santo

    HAMILTON, OHIO — Like many political news sites, Plunderbund was born out of frustration. Ohio-based writer Eric Vessels had been disengaged from politics for years, but when President Bush was reelected in 2004, his apathy transformed into anger. "I realized I hadn't been an active part of doing anything to make the country go in the direction I wanted it to," says Vessels....

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19. Jan 5, 2011 07:36 PM

    Politico

    The site that defined the twenty-four-hour news cycle

    By Joel Meares

    WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — On the night of the November 2010 midterms, as election results began trickling in, team Politico held a returns-watching gala at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum. It was the kind of lavish media event usually reserved for legacy media outlets--the Washington City Paper called the party "a throwback to the days when media companies actually made money... There...

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20. Jul 29, 2011 01:42 AM

    PubliCola

    Extensive political coverage for Seattle and Washington state

    By Alex Fekula

    SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — [UPDATE: After briefly ceasing operations in May 2012 due to "limited and inconsistent" ad revenue, Publicola was purchased in mid-June 2012 by SagaCity Media, owner of the Seattle Metropolitan magazine and other properties, for an undisclosed sum. The new web publication is called PubliCola at SeattleMet. Popular features like "Morning Fizz," "Afternoon Jolt," and and "ThinkTank" continue to be published,...

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21. May 23, 2011 11:12 AM

    Quorum Report

    A pioneer in niche online coverage, reporting on Texas politics since 1998

    By Connor Boals

    AUSTIN, TEXAS — Harvey Kronberg and his team at the Quorum Report are true Internet news frontiersmen. Kronberg, who has been covering Texas politics since 1989, purchased The Quorum Report, then a print-only political newsletter, in 1998, and within a year had turned the Report into an all-web news operation. Although he admits that he had to be convinced to go to the web...

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22. May 20, 2011 12:13 PM

    Remapping Debate

    An NYC-based site that seeks to throw a wrench in conventional wisdom on public policy

    By Isaac Olson

    NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Armed with flexible hypotheses rather than fill-in-the-blank assumptions, the public policy focused e-journal Remapping Debate aims to cut through the all-too-common political smokescreen to expose the true motivations behind--and the aftereffects of--top-level decision making, political or otherwise. Be it digging into the true cost of social security or taking a well-rounded look at proposed healthcare reform, Remapping Debate, launched...

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23. Apr 20, 2011 02:57 PM

    Solutions

    Colorado's source for health policy reporting and discussion

    By Dohini Patel

    DENVER, COLORADO — Solutions, launched on December 1st, 2010, is an independent, nonprofit news platform on health policy issues in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West. Solutions draws its inspiration from the format and niche content of another local news site, Education News Colorado. According to Solutions editor Diane Carman, the site "avoids the political back and forth that traditional media covers...

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24. Jan 5, 2011 08:10 PM

    Talking Points Memo

    The pioneer of web-based political journalism

    By Lauren Kirchner

    NEW YORK, NEW YORK — What began as Josh Marshall's personal blog during the Florida vote recount of November 2000 has since expanded into a profitable multimedia brand of fast-paced political news coverage. The TalkingPointsMemo.com homepage now acts as a conduit to several different frequently-updated news sites and blogs, a poll tracker, and a video channel....

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25. Oct 25, 2011 11:47 AM

    Texas Watchdog

    A government watchdog for the Lone Star State

    By Timothy Bella

    HOUSTON, TEXAS — The audience that reads Texas Watchdog's reporting may not be familiar with the news site or the organization behind it, but that's okay by TW. "Being online, half our visitors, quite frankly, don't know who Texas Watchdog is, and they don't care who Texas Watchdog is," says Trent Seibert, the site's founder and editor-in-chief. All that matters is the quality...

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26. Apr 27, 2012 01:03 PM

    The American Independent News Network

    A nonprofit news network refocusing in a bid for national relevance

    By Erik Shilling

    WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — When the American Independent News Network launched nearly six years ago as the Center for Independent Media, its goals were small. The nonprofit news organization was one of several that launched around the same time, including ProPublica, MinnPost.com, and Voice of San Diego, mostly in response to the ebbing fortunes of newspapers and a...

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27. Jan 30, 2012 03:07 PM

    The Arizona Guardian

    Niche political news for a state everyone's watching

    By Tom Marcinko

    PHOENIX, ARIZONA — Arizona exports political news like other states produce oranges or cheese. When Democratic media consultant Bob Grossfeld and a handful of veteran journalists launched the Arizona Guardian web-based news service in January 2009, they were well aware they were setting up shop in a state with a lively political scene. And that was before Arizona's headline-making "show-me-your-papers" immigration bill, the...

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28. May 25, 2011 01:04 PM

    The Connecticut Mirror

    Former Courant staffers step up to fill the state's hard news gap

    By David Downs

    HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT — A tiny, talented, maybe-a-bit-too-earnest team of ex-Hartford Courant staffers is trying to plug the glaring gaps in Connecticut's political coverage at CT Mirror, a sober-minded news startup that chases the sorts of in-depth, investigative political stories that the state's depleted legacy news organizations no longer have the resources to pursue. Working from the state capitol since January 2010, the nonprofit, non-partisan,...

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29. Jan 17, 2011 11:46 AM

    The Daily Caller

    Tucker Carlson and co.'s political reporting startup

    By Michael Meyer

    WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — "My politics are relatively well known," conservative media personality Tucker Carlson told CJR in February of 2010, not long after he and former Dick Cheney aide Neil Patel launched political news site The Daily Caller. "But this site is not a pure distillation of my politics. My views are not interesting enough to sustain the company we're...

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30. Oct 26, 2011 11:36 PM

    The Florida Current

    Exhaustive statehouse reporting and research in the Sunshine State

    By Paige Rentz

    TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Florida statehouse politics has found a new home in The Florida Current, a news site that aims to provide concise, neutral, and accurate reporting on politics and policy in the Sunshine State. Originally billed as The Florida Tribune, the site began as an arm of LobbyTools, a Tallahasse-based legislation tracking and data curation service for...

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31. Mar 24, 2011 11:35 AM

    The Florida Independent (Defunct)

    Legislative watchdogging and more

    By Chris Benz

    TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — [UPDATE:The Florida Independent was closed by its parent, the American Independent News Network, on April 27, 2011, just before the site's second birthday. CJR's detailed profile of AINN's refocusing on a national audience after shutting down all but one of its state sites can be found here.] Launched in May 2010 with a $352,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, <a href="http://floridaindependent.com/"...

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32. Mar 24, 2011 12:04 PM

    The Iowa Independent (Defunct)

    An early member of the American Independent News Network, all grown up

    By Joel Meares

    DES MOINES, IOWA — [UPDATE:The Iowa Independent was closed by its parent, the American Independent News Network, in November 2011. Lynda Waddington, the site's last employee, wrote a moving note to readers about the closure, which can be found here. CJR's detailed profile of AINN's refocusing on a national audience after shutting down all but one of its state sites can be found

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33. Mar 24, 2011 12:07 PM

    The Iowa Republican

    Reporting-heavy partisan news

    By Joel Meares

    DES MOINES, IOWA — While serving as political director of the Republican Party of Iowa in 2007, Craig Robinson had one of those out-there, against-the-grain ideas that rarely survive the journey from imagination to reality. Republicans, he recalls, were having big problems in terms of media coverage. "It wasn't that we didn't have people in our state doing good stuff, it...

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34. Mar 12, 2012 01:58 PM

    The New York World

    Accountability journalism from recent Columbia J-School alums

    By Tom Marcinko

    NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Last October 18, the day The New York World went live with a mission to expand journalism education and hold local and state governments accountable, editor Alyssa Katz posted a story by World reporter Sasha Chavkin about a private bus line in Brooklyn that ran a city bus route under a franchise agreement. Despite being open...

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35. Jan 4, 2011 05:48 PM

    The Texas Tribune

    Political reporting and investigations for the Lone Star State

    By Justin Yang

    AUSTIN, TEXAS — The Texas Tribune, which writer Jake Batsell profiled for CJR in July 2010, focuses on state politics, government, and investigative reporting, and prides itself on finding innovative ways of presenting the news to an increasingly expanding audience. The nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization has helped redefine online journalism and extended its goals of civic engagement far beyond the Internet. ...

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36. Mar 24, 2011 03:16 PM

    UtahPolicy.com

    Political news for Beehive State political insiders

    By Chris Benz

    SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH — For an example of how to deliver a massive amount of information with minimal manpower, look no further than UtahPolicy.com. Founded in 2004, the site is a news aggregator, but it also aggregates politicians' press releases, pdfs of proposed legislation, and other original materials. All of this is leavened with a dash of original reporting and analysis. <!-- OPEN...

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37. Mar 24, 2011 03:27 PM

    West Virginia Watchdog

    Think tank-funded West Virginia political news and investigations

    By Brendan Buhler

    CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA — West Virginia Watchdog is a one-man shop focusing on investigative and statehouse news in the Mountain State. The site is part of a network of sites around the country that share the Watchdog name. The Watchdog's sole editorial employee is Steven Allen Adams, who is also a stringer for Reuters and contributes to a Charleston, W.V. entertainment news website called Kanawha...

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38. Oct 31, 2011 01:45 PM

    Y’all Politics

    Extensive aggregation and commentary on Mississippi politics

    By Alex Fekula

    JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — Mississippi-based businessman Alan Lange loves politics--so much so that he launched a website in his spare time to cover the 2004 mayoral election in his hometown of Jackson, Miss. His reasoning was simple: "I wanted to cover [the race] in a way that hadn't been done before." His method was to create a centralized place for information about the race, consisting of...

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