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NEW YORK (AP) — Six months ago, Jennifer Rubin had no idea whether she’d make it in a new media world. She just knew it was time to leave The Washington Post, where she’d been a political columnist for 15 years.
The Contrarian, the democracy-focused website that Rubin founded with partner Norm Eisen in January, now has 10 employees and contributors like humorist Andy Borowitz and White House reporter April Ryan. Its 558,000 subscribers also get recipes and culture dispatches.
In the blink of an eye, Rubin became a independent news entrepreneur. “I think we hit a moment, just after inauguration, when people were looking for something different and it has captured people’s imaginations,” she says. “We’ve been having a ball with it.”
YouTube, Substack, TikTok and others are spearheading a full-scale democratization of media and a generation of new voices and influencers. But don’t forget the traditionalists. Rubin’s experience shows how this world offers a lifeline to many at struggling legacy outlets who wanted — or were forced — to strike out on their own.
Tough Business Realities, Changing Consumer Tastes
The realities of business and changing consumer tastes are both driving forces.
YouTube claims more than 1 billion monthly podcast views, and a recent list of its top 100 shows featured seven refugees from legacy media and six shows made by current broadcasters. Substack, which launched in 2017 and added live video in January, has more than doubled its number of paid subscribers to participating content creators to