The Dispatch
The Dispatch is an American conservative subscription-based and advertisement-free online magazine founded by Jonah Goldberg, Stephen F. Hayes, and Toby Stock.[1][2][3] Several of The Dispatch's staff (including Hayes) are alumni of The Weekly Standard, which is now defunct.[1]
For similar terms, see the Dispatch (disambiguation) and Dispatch (disambiguation).
Type of site
Stephen F. Hayes
Jonah Goldberg
Toby Stock
Jonah Goldberg (editor-in-chief)
Rachael Larimore (managing editor)
David A. French (senior editor)
Chris Stirewalt (contributing editor)
Toby Stock
Stephen F. Hayes
$1.9 million
Yes
Required for viewing some articles and for commenting
October 2019
History[edit]
After The Weekly Standard ceased publication in December 2018, Hayes, Goldberg, and Stock were inspired to start a media company with the goal of "producing serious, factually grounded journalism for a conservative audience".[4] Goldberg and Hayes expressed concern over the alliance between conservative media outlets and the Republican Party, and started The Dispatch with a desire to instead focus on conservative principles, regardless of party lines.[5] The company is based in downtown Washington, D.C.[4] By June 2020, The Dispatch had grown to twelve staffers.[6]
The Dispatch began with a beta launch in October 2019 and fully launched on January 7, 2020.[1] Hayes, Goldberg, and Stock own a majority of the company, but there are additional individual investors.[7] The founders intentionally avoided using venture capitalists.[6] At its launch in October 2019, The Dispatch had pooled $6 million in investment capital and had in its employ a full-time staff of eight individuals,[5] including founding editor-in-chief Jonah Goldberg, managing editor Rachael Larimore, and (soon after its launch) senior editor David A. French.[2][8] In January 2020, shortly after launching, The Dispatch Podcast appeared briefly on Apple's Top 100 news podcasts.[4] By March 2020, the company claimed to have nearly 10,000 paying subscribers.[9]
The Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) certified The Dispatch's fact-checking division in May 2020.[10][11] As of September 2020, The Dispatch had nearly 100,000 subscribers, with almost 18,000 of them paying for the full service. The company pulled in nearly $2 million in revenue during its first year, most of which was from Substack subscriptions.[5][12] The Dispatch was Substack's first media company.[7] In October 2022, the publication moved from Substack to its own website.[13]
The Dispatch has been sharply critical of Donald Trump from a center-right perspective.[2] On 6 January 2021, after the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, Rudy Giuliani left a voicemail message intended for Senator Tommy Tuberville on a different Senator's voicemail account. This message urged Tuberville to delay certification of the electoral vote: "Just try to slow it down." The unnamed Senator gave the message to The Dispatch, which immediately broke the story.[14] The next day, The Dispatch published an editorial calling for the impeachment and removal of President Trump.[15]