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Outlet profile

The Dispatch

U.S. center-right

Owned byMajority owned by co-founders Jonah Goldberg, Stephen F. Hayes, and Toby Stock; remaining shares held by a dispersed group of individual investors, none owning more than a single-digit percentage
FundingPrimarily subscription/membership-based (roughly 85% of revenue); supplemented by sponsorships (roughly 10%) and licensing; raised approximately $18 million in investor capital since founding with no venture capital involvement
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

The Dispatch launched in beta in October 2019 and fully opened on January 7, 2020, founded by Jonah Goldberg (a longtime senior editor at National Review), Stephen F. Hayes (an 18-year veteran of The Weekly Standard), and business partner Toby Stock. Its founding was directly triggered by the abrupt December 2018 closure of The Weekly Standard, which both Goldberg and Hayes viewed as a casualty of conservative media's increasing deference to Donald Trump. The founders raised roughly $6 million in initial capital from many small individual investors, intentionally avoiding venture capital to preserve editorial independence. The outlet grew quickly through newsletters and podcasts, surpassing $1 million in annual revenue by early 2020 and reaching approximately $5 million by 2024 with around 45,000 paid subscribers. In 2025, it expanded by acquiring SCOTUSblog, the prominent Supreme Court news and analysis site, and the company was reported to have held acquisition talks with German media conglomerate Axel Springer. Internal leadership changes surfaced in mid-2026 when president Mike Rothman departed amid reported disagreements with Goldberg and Hayes over the outlet's direction. AllSides and Media Bias/Fact Check both rate The Dispatch as center-right; it occupies a distinct niche as a conservative outlet openly skeptical of Trump and MAGA politics—more willing to criticize Republican leadership than mainstream right-wing outlets, but less oppositional in tone than explicitly anti-Trump publications such as The Bulwark.

Sources

  1. The Dispatch – Wikipedia
  2. The Dispatch Media Bias Rating – AllSides
  3. The Dispatch – Bias and Credibility – Media Bias/Fact Check
  4. The Dispatch surpassed $1 million in revenue – Nieman Journalism Lab
  5. Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg will launch The Dispatch – Axios
  6. The Dispatch's Plan to Double Revenue in 2025 – A Media Operator
  7. How The Dispatch is diversifying beyond its subscription model – The Long Story
  8. Exclusive: The Dispatch expands into DC analysis – Semafor
  9. Exclusive: Dispatch exec departs amid uncertainty – Semafor
  10. The Dispatch's Founding Manifesto – The Dispatch

Profile compiled 2026-07-06; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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