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D.C. journalists launch media company with $10 million+ funding

10 July 2021
Dan Ackermann

Laura McGann, former politics editor of Vox.com and Politico, and Mark Bauman, previously with the Smithsonian, National Geographic and ABC News, are teaming up to launch a yet-to-be named media company.

Why it matters: McGann and Bauman say they're looking to build a newsroom that goes deep on select topic areas that are becoming a greater societal focuses, like misinformation, climate and Chinese geopolitics.

  • "Our goal is to build a newsroom of beat reporters, subject matter experts, visual journalists and editors that all come together to cover the biggest stories of the day," McGann says. "We'll be creating new formats that give our audience a fuller look at big news stories that can be confusing if you read them piecemeal."

Details: The pair has already raised more than $10 million in a series A funding round from two investors: One is a U.S.-based individual that the company declines to name; The second is International Media Investments, a UAE-based fund that has a minority stake in Euronews, Europe's top international news network, Sky News Arabia and others.

  • McGann will serve as the outlet's editorial lead. Bauman will work as president and CEO, overseeing the business side of the operation.
  • The pair will report to a board of five news and politics veterans: David Ensor, Chris Isham, Madhulika Sikka, Alberto Fernandez and John Defterios.
  • Matthew Yglesias, McGann's former Vox Media colleague, will join as editor at large. "He’s going to pioneer new policy writing formats for us," McGann says.
  • The outlet will invest heavily in data visualizations, and integrate expertise from contributors. Yglesias will be key in helping the newsroom work with outside experts, like academics.

The company has already hired about two dozen people, with roughly half contributing to editorial operations. Two of the company's editorial hires include Kay Steiger, former Washington editor for Vox.com, and Tom Nagorski, formerly the COO of the Asia Society and managing editor of ABC News.

  • The company has 22 job openingsposted on its website. It hopes to have at least 60 people on staff by year's end, depending on how many they decide to hire as full-time editorial staff or contractors, per Bauman. The company will be based in Washington, D.C.
  • The focus at launch will be on three key topic areas: Policy and politics (led by Steiger), geopolitics and global affairs (led by Nagorski) and science and technology.
  • "We are very interested in AI and bias," McGann added.
  • The company is also hiring an investigations editor to build a team to break news.

Be smart: Bauman says the outlet will be funded via advertising and sponsorships of the site's editorial and live events. Later, the company hopes to launch a consulting line.

What to watch: The outlet is expected to launch officially in late September.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.