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Courier Newsroom
Founded2019
FounderTara McGowan
Headquarters
Washington, D.C. Edit this on Wikidata
OwnerGood Information Inc.
Websitecouriernewsroom.com

Courier Newsroom is a digital media company that operates news outlets and sponsors political content intended to support Democratic candidates.[a][2][3][4] It microtargets voters via social media advertising with the intention to both inform and persuade.[5]

Courier's lack of transparency about its funding sources and glowing coverage of Democratic candidates have raised questions about its reliability and about the line between advocacy and journalism. Courier engages in political microtargeting and the Columbia Journalism Review described Courier's business model as "money from interested parties who seek a particular political outcome."

Courier's founder is Tara McGowan, a political strategist and former journalist[6] who previously worked for the Obama campaign and for the SuperPAC Priorities USA Action.[7][8] Courier was launched by ACRONYM and is now owned by Good Information Inc.[9][10]

History

[edit]

Courier Newsroom was founded in 2019 by Tara McGowan. As of May 2020, Courier Newsroom websites had a budget of $11 million, a staff of 60 reporters and 12 editors, and aimed to publish approximately 300 articles and videos a week.[4] Courier Newsroom raised $15 million in the first half of 2022 from donors including Reid Hoffman and George Soros. The outlet spent over $5 million on Facebook and Instagram advertising designed to promote Democratic candidates and members of Congress.[11] Mark Zuckerberg's concern that the Courier Newsroom was not a real news outlet sparked a 2020 change in policy at Facebook, which started to limit the reach of partisan sites by restricting their access and curtailing their advertising.[12] Courier Newsroom was originally owned by liberal dark money group ACRONYM, but ACRONYM later divested its stake in the company in April 2021.[13][3][14]

As of June 2021, Courier Newsroom operates progressive digital news outlets in ten states.[15] In June 2021, the company acquired a progressive political news site, Iowa Starting Line, which the New York Times called "the best political journalism you've never heard of."[16][17]

Strategy

[edit]

The Courier Newsroom's local digital news outlets are not traditional town newspapers. Instead, they are websites designed to encourage people in key swing states to vote Democratic, while looking like local newspapers.[18][b] The articles are promoted on social media such as Facebook, which does not prohibit the practice because the newspapers are for-profit.[7]

Funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, and movie producers.[4][19] Courier Newsroom received $250,000 from Planned Parenthood between June 2021 and June 2022. It received $715,000 in 2022 from "a dark money group with close ties to the Democratic Attorneys General Association" for "content creation and promotion."[20] According to NOTUS, that same year "Courier wrote frequently and favorably of a Democratic attorney general candidate in Nevada named Aaron Ford." Ford won his election.[20]

In 2020, the Hopewell Fund financed[vague] Courier Newsroom. The New York Times reported that Courier "published articles favoring Democrats and received millions of dollars from dark money groups. It was paid $2.6 million by a nonprofit linked to House Democratic leadership to promote articles."[21]

As of 2024, Courier Newsroom had spent more than $12 million on Facebook and Instagram ads. This number does not include spending on TikTok, which does not disclose advertising spending.[20]

Reception

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Courier Newsroom was originally owned by ACRONYM;[22][23][24] the creation and operation of Courier Newsroom initially raised ethics questions about ACRONYM and about its financiers, who include billionaires Reid Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs.[25] A complaint to the Federal Elections Commission was dismissed and ACRONYM has since dissolved.[6]

Carrie Brown, director of social journalism at the journalism school at City University of New York, found the targeting of news to swing voters "problematic."[c] Vox reported that "the Courier Newsroom launch did raise some eyebrows. If this were a Republican operative declaring its strategy like this, a lot of Democrats probably would have criticized it."[26] According to OpenSecrets, "websites affiliated with Courier Newsroom that appear to be free-standing local news outlets are actually part of a coordinated effort with deep ties to Democratic political operatives."[3]

NewsGuard, which rates news sources, warns readers that Courier Newsroom websites are "insufficiently transparent" and "cherry-pick facts to advance a Democratic narrative." Gabby Deutch, writing on behalf of NewsGuard, called Courier News a "faux news site" and said while "[u]nlike some sources of partisan disinformation, Courier stories are generally fact-based" its strategy is nevertheless "pumping up moderate Democrats elected to Congress in 2018 in Republican-leaning districts."[23] In 2020, NewsGuard rated the Courier websites as "generally unreliable."[d] In 2024, NewGuard's editor said that "Courier Newsroom sites do not disclose ownership and financing, they do not disclose possible conflicts of interest, nor do they gather and present information responsibility."[20] NewsGuard, a misinformation tracking company that rates the reliability of news sources, has warned that "Courier's undisclosed funders and glowing coverage of Democratic candidates should raise questions about its reliability."[20] A 2024 study by NewsGuard found that "the number of partisan-backed outlets designed to look like impartial news outlets has officially surpassed the number of real, local daily newspapers in the U.S." NewsGuard identified at least 1,265 such websites "backed by dark money or intentionally masquerading as local news sites for political purposes." According to Axios, almost half of these websites are targeted to swing states, "a clear sign that they're designed to influence politics." Courier Newsroom was described by Axios as having "some of the more strategic sites."[27]

NOTUS wrote that "Courier grew out of a series of explicitly political experiments that hinged on using paid online advertising to turn out voters. It then pivoted to being a privately owned media company" that is "testing the limits of what a newsroom can be."[20]

According to The Wall Street Journal, outlets like Courier try to capitalize on readers' trust in local news sources "while playing down their partisan interests and often obscuring their donors."[4]

The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) described Courier's business model as "money from interested parties who seek a particular political outcome."[28] CJR also reported that Courier engages in political microtargeting wherein "employees at Courier's headquarters are responsible for testing whether content produced by its local newsrooms is successful in moving voters in a desired progressive direction."[29]

Courier Newsroom has been accused of producing pink-slime journalism.[30][31][32]

Websites

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  • Iowa Starting Line, Iowa, acquired June 2021. Founder Pat Rynard[33]
  • Copper Courier, Arizona, launched October 2019.[7]
  • The Dogwood, launched mid-2019.[7] At launch, The Dogwood was owned by an ACRONYM subsidiary, For What Is Worth Media, Inc.[34]
  • Up North News, Wisconsin. Founding Editor: Pat Kreitlow.[35]
  • The 'Gander, Michigan[citation needed]
  • Cardinal & Pine, North Carolina.[e]
  • The Keystone, Pennsylvania, launched in 2020.[citation needed]
  • The Nevadan, Nevada.[citation needed]
  • Floricua, Florida.[citation needed]
  • Granite Post, New Hampshire.[citation needed]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Courier Newsroom, which Bloomberg called "a liberal, digital spin on local news."[1]
  2. ^ the effort is also designed to help elect Democrats, by delivering partisan news stories to swing-state voters on Facebook[8]
  3. ^ Carrie Brown, director of social journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. But the notion of targeting it directly at specific voters in swing states, "that is interesting and more problematic."[8]
  4. ^ assessed the Courier websites as "generally unreliable."[8]
  5. ^ A Facebook ad about Trump and the pandemic from "Cardinal & Pine," a North Carolina-focused Courier outlet, was seen disproportionately by people who were young and female, a group that turns out at a relatively low rate, but tends to support Democrats[8]

References

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  1. ^ Marantz, Andrew (February 6, 2020). "Inside Acronym, the Tech Consultancy Behind the Disastrous Iowa-Caucus App". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  2. ^ Stewart, Emily (2020-02-05). "Acronym, the dark money group behind the Iowa caucuses app meltdown, explained". Vox. Retrieved 2024-08-08.
  3. ^ a b c Massoglia, Anna (May 22, 2020). "'Dark money' networks hide political agendas behind fake news sites". OpenSecrets. OpenSecrets. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d Glazer, Emily; Hagley, Keach (19 October 2020). "Partisan Sites Posing as Local News Expand Ahead of Election". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 19 October 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  5. ^ Anderson-Davis, Stuart (February 23, 2024). ""Pink Slime Journalism" and a history of media manipulation in America". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
  6. ^ a b Crowell, Maddy (June 10, 2024). "A Little to the Left". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  7. ^ a b c d Joshua Green (25 November 2019). "The Left's Plan to Slip Vote-Swaying News Into Facebook Feeds". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d e Jeremy B. Merrill; Hanna Kozlowska (15 April 2020). "A well-heeled liberal group is filling the local news void with Trump-bashing coronavirus ads". Quartz (publication). Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  9. ^ Brill, Steven (2024-06-02). "Opinion: The new pink slime media". Semafor. Archived from the original on 2024-06-02. Retrieved 2024-06-07.
  10. ^ Fischer, Sara (2021-10-26). "Reid Hoffman, George Soros back media firm to combat disinformation". Axios. Archived from the original on 2024-06-06. Retrieved 2024-06-07.
  11. ^ Scola, Nancy (October 6, 2022). "The Election-Swinging, Facebook-Fueled, Get-Out-the-Vote Machine". Wired. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  12. ^ Glazer, Deepa Seetharaman and Emily (16 October 2020). "How Mark Zuckerberg Learned Politics". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  13. ^ "The new journalism — and the PR firms behind it". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
  14. ^ Staff, ACRONYM (2021-04-30). "ACRONYM Announces Leadership Changes, New Chapter for Organization". ACRONYM. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
  15. ^ Izadi, Elahe (June 4, 2021). "The new journalism — and the PR firms behind it". Washington Post. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
  16. ^ Grynbaum, Michael M. (2020-01-31). "A Scrappy Iowa Start-Up Is the 'It' Read for Political Insiders". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  17. ^ Pfannenstiel, Brianne. "Liberal outlet Iowa Starting Line gets new owner, new focus on fighting political disinformation". Des Moines Register. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  18. ^ Tobias Hoonhout (11 February 2020). "YouTube Sponsors Progressive Outlet to Create Nonpartisan 'Academy' for Local News". Yahoo News. Retrieved 14 February 2020. started a for-profit news organization called Courier last year to roll out pro-Democrat coverage under the guise of "local news" in key swing states
  19. ^ Schneider, Elena (November 18, 2021). "Left-wing Midwest media outlet launching with backing from Dem donor". POLITICO. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Severns, Maggie (25 March 2024). "How a Former Democratic Operative Is Testing the Limits of What a Newsroom Can Be". NOTUS. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  21. ^ Vogel, Kenneth P.; Goldmacher, Shane (29 January 2022). "Democrats Decried Dark Money. Then They Won With It in 2020". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  22. ^ Emily Stewart (6 February 2020). "Acronym, the dark money group behind the Iowa caucuses app meltdown, explained". MSN. Retrieved 7 February 2020. the Courier Newsroom, a for-profit media company under Acronym's umbrella that runs multiplelocal sites that deliver left-slanted news
  23. ^ a b Deutch, Gabby (6 February 2020). "Is it local journalism, or just local propaganda?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 February 2020. Courier's main backer is Acronym, a liberal dark-money group
  24. ^ "About ACRONYM".
  25. ^ Thompson, Alex (14 July 2020). "Newsroom or PAC? Liberal group muddies online information wars". Politico. Retrieved 5 September 2020. Acronym — a sprawling digital organization whose programs include millions of dollars in traditional political advertising and voter engagement efforts, with financing from some of the deepest pockets in progressive politics, such as liberal billionaires Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, and Laurene Powell Jobs, the majority owner of The Atlantic — has stirred outrage and provoked debate about the ethics of such political tactics
  26. ^ "Acronym, the dark money group behind the Iowa caucuses app meltdown, explained". Vox. Retrieved 7 February 2020. the Courier Newsroom launch did raise some eyebrows. If this were a Republican operative declaring its strategy like this, a lot of Democrats probably would have criticized it.
  27. ^ Fischer, Sara (June 11, 2024). "Dark money news outlets outpacing local daily newspapers". Axios. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  28. ^ Bell, Emily (December 12, 2022). "Local news faces a political future as the JCPA falls foul of lobbyists". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  29. ^ Grevy Gotfredsen, Sarah (November 22, 2022). "The Progressive News Network, Courier, Keeps a Foot in Eight Swing States. This local Michigan Newsroom is one of them". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  30. ^ "Democrats Spending Fortune on Fake News in Campaign Final Stretch | Opinion MATTHEW FOLDI, CONSERVATIVE JOURNALIST". Newsweek. 7 November 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  31. ^ Alba, Davey (October 27, 2022). "Meta is making millions off political ads from fake 'pink slime' newsrooms". Fortune. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  32. ^ Hasen, Richard L. (February 23, 2020). "Opinion: If Democrats fight right-wing "fake news" fire with fire, we all lose". Salon. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  33. ^ "Press Releases". COURIER. Archived from the original on 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  34. ^ Sara Fischer (9 July 2019). "Progressive non-profit ACRONYM to invest $1M in local media effort". Axios. Retrieved 7 February 2020. The Dogwood is owned by the for-profit FWIW Media. While it's non-partisan, ACRONYM says it's investing
  35. ^ Chris Rickert (4 January 2020). "With 2020 in sight, dark-money sites look to distribute their versions of the news". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved 7 February 2020. UpNorthNews' managing editor, Pat Kreitlow
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