The Daily Signal - BIG Announcement: Rob Bluey on What Future Holds for The Daily Signal

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

The Heritage Foundation founded The Daily Signal 10 years ago this week. The group filled a void in media at a time when few conservative news outlets existed. A decade later, the Washington, D.C.-based news outlet is entering a new chapter and aiming to expand its influence.  “We are so excited that with the blessing of The Heritage Foundation, The Daily Signal is now its own independent media organization,” Rob Bluey, the news outlet's president and executive editor, explains on “The Daily Signal Podcast.”  The move to become its own organization, according to Bluey, provides The Daily Signal with the opportunity to grow its team, acquire White House and congressional press credentials, and offers more editorial freedom to cover elections and campaigns.  From its inception, The Daily Signal has had a mission that aligns with The Heritage Foundation, according to Bluey, and “I think that the conservative principles that have guided Heritage will continue to guide The Daily Signal in the future, even as an independent media organization, because ultimately, we will be organized as both a nonprofit and a for-profit.” Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, June 4th. I'm Virginia Allen. We are interrupting our usual podcast plans this morning to celebrate a very special moment at the Daily Signal. We are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Daily Signal. That's right. The Daily Signal was founded back in 2014. So we are thrilled to be celebrating such a special moment with you here on the Daily Signal podcast today. And in just a moment, the president and executive editor for the Daily Signal, Rob Louie, is going to be celebrating such a special moment. We're going to be a special moment. going to be joining us to share a really exciting announcement from the Daily Signal.

Stay with us as we jump into that conversation right after this. It was 10 years ago that the Daily Signal officially launched as an alternative to the establishment press. We believed then that major newspapers and broadcast networks were leaving a massive audience of conservatives and independent-minded Americans unserved. We set out on June 3, 2014, to inject competition into the market. Well, our hypothesis was correct. To all the patriotic Americans and supporters of our work, thank you for making the past 10 years possible.

Going forward, you can expect the same insightful reporting and thoughtful commentary from the Daily Signal as you've come to rely on for the past decade. Just as our name implies, we will continue to be your signal that cuts through the noise to transmit the news quickly and simply. More importantly, we will always tell you the truth. That is our promise. We believe that by focusing on quality journalism, the unbatched knowledge of our contributors,

and insider intel, thanks to our access to policymakers, the Daily Signal's future is bright. But we can't do it without your help. You can support our work by visiting dailysignal.com slash donate. For those who have made a financial contribution in the past or are considering making a gift today, thanks for making the Daily Signal your trusted source of news. Rob, thank you so much for being with us today. Really appreciate it. You're usually on the other side of the mic, so it's great to have you actually in the hot seat today. It's intimidating, Virginia. Go easy on me. I'll try. I'll try. Well, we talk a lot about in news and in reporting that you never bury the lead. You want to bring that big piece of news right to the top. So go ahead. If you would share with us what this big announcement is from the Daily Signal this week. We are so excited that with the blessing of the Heritage Foundation, the Daily Signal is now its own independent media organization.

And we took this step. It was several months in the planning. And we're announcing it on our anniversary because we felt what better opportunity to recognize the contributions that we've made over the course of the past 10 years, all of the individuals who've contributed, including yourself, to making the Daily Signal what it is today. and it's important to do this for a couple of reasons. Number one, if we're going to expand and grow and continue to provide the coverage that we think is needed for the American people, this move is absolutely crucial for us to be able to do that successfully. Secondly, I would say if our listeners remember to last summer when the White House removed the press credentials of 460 reporters, including our own Fred Lucas, it gave us an operational. It gave us an opportunity to reflect on our structure within heritage. And it was really a moment to decide that maybe there was a different way that we should organize ourselves to be more effective in covering the news and getting access to important locations like the U.S. Capitol and the White House. And then finally, and I think with us being in a critical election year, we wanted more editorial freedom to cover the campaign in elections. So we will have a team, a strong team of reporters in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention.

We'll follow that in August at the Democratic National Convention. We'll be doing things that historically over the last 10 years we haven't at the Daily Signal. And so expanding into political commentary and coverage is a really exciting adventure for us to embark upon. It is really exciting. Well, there's obvious changes to us who are seated here in Washington, D.C., working on the Daily Signal team. But what about for our listeners who are wondering, okay, what is the daily signal separating in a legal capacity from the Heritage Foundation becoming its own 501C3? What is that going to mean for us as individuals who enjoy listening to the podcast every day who like reading your content?

Is anything going to change for our audience out there? Well, you'll still be able to access all the content free of charge. We're not planning to put a paywall up or charge subscribers to access the content, as I know many media organizations are doing in part because they are looking for different ways to generate revenue. So you might start to see more advertisements on the Daily Signal. We already obviously feature some ads here in our podcast, promoting some great products that are coming out with the Heritage Foundation. But most importantly, I really can't stress this enough. We're going to continue to provide you with the clarity that you need each and every day

on the most important stories happening in Washington. And so we aim to do that through the podcast twice a day with our interview edition in the morning, with our headlines in the afternoon. you'll continue to receive all of that information. There may be an expansion in terms of the types of stories that we're able to report in the future as a result of this change. And then it's my intention and hope that down the road will be able to add people to the team. So already we are recruiting right now, a congressional news reporter, when that person is onboarded. Certainly, Virginia, I think that they would be a wonderful addition to the podcast operation that we've built here to bring our listeners an update on what's happening across the street on Capitol Hill.

for our listeners who don't know, I mean, we are just blocks from the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court. And so right in the center of the action. And I think that that's really a competitive advantage that we have as a media organization in order to cover the news. Yeah, it definitely is. We're very blessed. And we'll definitely, whenever we get that congressional reporter, we will be making he or she work very hard to often join the podcast and share what is that insider information as they roam the halls of Congress and speak with lawmakers. But Rob, you were a part, a strategic part, a critical part of founding the Daily Signal 10 years ago. Take us back to 2014. What exactly was the conservative media landscape like at that time? Well, certainly smaller than it is today. I mean, I'll even go back a little bit farther when I first came to Washington, D.C. in 2001,

when I was a recent college graduate, having studied journalism, and honestly, Virginia aspired to work at the Washington Post. I mean, that was kind of my dream in coming to Washington. And I quickly realized when I looked at the opportunities when I was actually physically here, that I just, I don't know, I just didn't have, it didn't strike me as the thing that or the path that I wanted to take. And so I started at cnsnews.com. I've later moved to human events and both of those roles. I was a congressional reporter. I covered a variety of political stories across the landscape.

And through those experiences, at a time when conservative media probably could be counted on one or two hands, it just dawned on me that, geez, what a great opportunity we would have at the Heritage Foundation to marry the policy expertise and the deep knowledge that comes from the experts who work at a policy think tank with a team of journalists who could tell compelling stories about how those policies affect people in their lives each and every day. And so that was really the impetus for creating the Daily Signal in 2014. I have to give credit to our former Heritage Foundation president, Jim DeMint, who gave us the runway and the ability to do this.

As a former elected official, I think he saw the importance of communicating directly with individuals. And I think there was also probably a certain level of frustration that at the time, Heritage was not able to get its message out because it was being filtered by other media organizations. And so it was through that combination of hiring a team of season journalists, publishing commentary from heritage policy experts, and then obviously working with others in the conservative movement to make sure that they had a voice as well, that we gave birth to the Daily Signal. And it was an exciting time. I will say that the one thing that I'm really proud of, and I think that the team has yourself included embraced, is the fact that you don't have to just tell a story based on the written word. This podcast is a perfect example of that. Our short video documentaries are another example. Most recently, I think in the past year, we've seen an explosion of growth with the short video content that we've been producing.

So the thing that I love about this team is their innovative nature. So just because we launched with a certain vision in 2014, doesn't necessarily mean that we're still embracing those same tactics today. We have evolved and we've recognized that people are consuming their news in many different ways. and we'll continue to make those changes and meet the audience where they are. And as we've seen that evolution, has the mission of the Daily Signal changed over the course of a decade? I'd say that, you know, at its core, no. I mean, we are a mission-driven organization. So I think that that's important to know.

There are some news and media companies that exist purely to make a profit, as difficult as that is in today's media landscape. But the Daily Signal is, from its very beginning, had a mission. and that mission has aligned with the Heritage Foundation. And I think that the conservative principles that have guided heritage will continue to guide the Daily Signal in the future, even as an independent media organization, because ultimately we will be organized as both a nonprofit and a for-profits. So there will be two entities that comprise the Daily Signal, and it will give us the opportunity to fulfill that mission and carry out our work.

Now, along the way, we've made several additions and adaptations to make sure that as we look at the media landscape and the competition that exists that we're doing our part. That's one of the reasons why we're making this investment in congressional news. We think that there has been an explosion of coverage, not necessarily from conservative outlets, though, and in order for conservatives to make sure that they have an outlet that's covering the issues that they care about, the legislation they're introducing, the hearings that they're holding, that the daily signal needs to invest in that area. I'd say another area of growth has been the investigative reporting project that Fred Lucas now leads. Certainly our partners with the oversight project have been

great contributors and collaborators with the Daily Signal. So just two examples of areas where they might not have existed in 2014, but we've grown and developed them in the years that followed. And Rob, I think one of my favorite parts of this shift is that we've started a fellows program as well. And just this week, we have our first two fellows starting. They're both former interns. And it's It's so exciting to think that we can be a part of really raising up the next generation of young conservative journalists. That's right. So the Daily Signal Institute, which is our new 501C3, will do a few things in order to benefit

the public. And one of those is to create this fellowship program and train future journalists on the trade and what it takes to do that reporting and make sure that they're informing the public of the big issues that are taking place. Another thing is we're making the content that we publish as staff. of the Institute available for any publication to repurpose or republish free of charge. And so I think that as we try to spread our wings, we want to make sure that others have access to that information as well. So we are delighted to welcome Elizabeth Troutman and Elise McHugh, our new fellows. They're going to be

great additions to the team. And there's more information about the fellowship available on our website. We hope to add more in the future. Yeah, so exciting. Now, for those listening who think I love the Heritage Foundation. I don't want any of that connection between DailySigel and Heritage to go away. Share with our listeners, if you would, just what is the relationship between Heritage and the Daily Signal going to look like moving forward? Sure. Well, as you mentioned, Virginia, we are legally separate. We're our own entity. And as a result of that, we have our own board of directors. We have our own leadership team. And so that is important for us as we branch out on our own. However, the connections to Heritage will obviously always be there as the organization that incubated us and founded us.

We fully intend to continue publishing Heritage Foundation policy experts and their commentary. We have several who are already great regular contributors and cover not only what's happening in Congress, but all across the world, frankly, and increasingly in state capitals where we see a lot of legislative activity taking place. And so they will continue to have, be welcome to publish at the Daily Signal. I think that the other important note is, you know, as the Daily Signal takes on this new identity as an independent media organization, we also want to expand in terms of giving a voice to conservatives who may not be in Washington, D.C., but have important things to say that are happening in the states and places where there are important cultural battles taking place. And so in addition to publishing heritage policy experts will also be publishing individuals who may work at state think tanks or other policy organizations or individual Americans who just care about the future of this country. Yeah, excellent.

As you think back over these 10 years, are there certain stories or topics that the Daily Signal has covered that you just feel really proud of the work that the team has done here? Well, it gives me an opportunity to plug my longtime colleague and our first hire Katrina Trinko. So Kate, as she's known to those of us in the office, put together an outstanding piece looking back at the first 10 years of The Daily Signal and some of the stories that we published during that period of time. And I'd say that the ones that stand out in my mind are so many of the cultural battles that we have covered. So, for instance, we were among the first organizations to tell the story of Coach Joe Kennedy

in Washington State and the religious liberty fight that he had that eventually made its way all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Or, you know, there are others that really span the entire country, individuals who have come up against school bureaucrats and administrators when it comes to the issue of having, you know, who is appropriate in terms of using what bathroom or playing in what sport. And so you, Virginia, are Mary Margaret or our former colleague Kelsey Bowler, you know, have all done tremendous coverage of that particular. issue and I think elevated it in the eyes of the American people about what a real challenge and threat it was years before, you know, it kind of blew up in many of the legacy outlets today.

And so those stand out in my mind. But I'll give you a recent example of a great investigative report by our colleague Mary Margaret Ollahan on one of the top leaders at the Department of Justice, Kristen Clark, who was confirmed to run the Civil Rights Division back in 2021, one of the first people that Joe Biden nominated for for the job at DOJ. Mary Margaret, through her persistent investigative reporting, discovered that she hid from U.S. senators information about an arrest that that she was asked to disclose. And so it's that type of journalism that I think goes, you know, either untouched by other outlets or outright ignored because maybe she's of a political persuasion that the Daily Signal is

determined to cover. And so those are the types of stories that I hope we continue to do in the future. Ten years down, what do the next ten years hold for the daily signal row? Oh my goodness. Well, it's so hard to predict the future. But as I alluded to earlier, I think we're going to be seeing just a massive shift in how people consume information. That is true for individuals who might be congressional staffers on Capitol Hill. That is true for Americans who are increasingly getting their news from a variety of sources. And so it's really important for the Daily Signal team to think about those formats in terms of how we tell stories. So increasingly, I think number one, every time we have a written story, I think we should strive to probably tell that story in

other forms, whether it be on this podcast or through a short video. Number two, I think that so many human interest stories, you know, and we have a great documentary being released today, in fact, by our colleague, Mary Margaret, to the extent that we can do more of that work, and I'm very happy that Tim Kennedy is joining our team to spearhead our video operations. So you will be seeing more of that, I think, in the next 10 years. I also think that probably Virginia, you're going to see some consolidation. I mean, there are so many different media outlets that exist today that I suspect that as the years progress, and as the media landscape continues to shift and change, you know, maybe some of them merge,

maybe some of them form alliances, because it's so difficult, particularly with the social media platforms the way they are in terms of sending traffic, the way people expect to consume news in the future, that it's just going to be hard to sustain a for-profit model. Yeah, excellent. Rob Bluey, president and executive editor for The Daily Sede Don't Rob. Thank you for bringing us this exciting news today. This is great. Thanks, Virginia. And I encourage all of our listeners to help us spread the word. It's so important for us to be successful. So share a link to this show.

Senddailysignal.com to your friends. Make sure they subscribe to our email newsletters. Anything you can do just to help get the word out is really helpful as we embark on this new challenge. Absolutely. Well, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thank you so much for all of our listeners for your continued support of the Daily Signal over these past 10 years. We appreciate everyone who has taken time to leave us a rating and review to send us an email. Let us know what you think.

If you've never done that, please. please let us know. We really do enjoy hearing your feedback, whether it's on those Apple podcasts or Spotify reviews or through email. And make sure you also hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new shows from The Daily Signal. We will be right back here with you around 5 p.m. for our top news edition. Have a great rest of your Tuesday. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Bluey and Kate Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Mary Margaret Ollahan, Tyler O'Neill.

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