Jonah Goldberg, Steve Hayes launch conservative media company The Dispatch

Former National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg and Steve Hayes of the now-defunct Weekly Standard have launched a conservative media company called The Dispatch.
“We aim to make The Dispatch a place that thoughtful readers can come for conservative, fact-based news and commentary that doesn’t come either through the filter of the mainstream media or the increasingly boosterish media on the right. Importantly, we want to build a genuine community, with regular engagement between those of us who work here and the readers and listeners who will pay our salaries,” Goldberg and Hayes write on the company’s website.
{mosads}Visitors to the site can choose to read content for free initially or purchase a “Founders Membership” for $1,500, which provides a lifetime membership and other perks including “priority access to meet-ups, events, conference call with top staffers” and “access to robust members-only discussion room.”
“Everything will remain free for the next few months. Early next year, we’ll begin charging $10 a month or $100 a year for membership,” Hayes indicates in an email to new subscribers.
The publication’s newsletter will debut on Wednesday, Axios first reported on Tuesday.
National Review’s David French will also be joining The Dispatch as senior editor, the news outlet added.
According to Axios, The Dispatch will launch with a full-time staff of eight. It has reportedly raised $6 million from investors ahead of its debut.
“We think there are many out there, of all ideological persuasions, hungry for what we are offering. As Basil King said, ‘Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid,'” Goldberg and Hayes add on The Dispatch’s site. “We believe that the mightiest force out there will be the readers eager to come along for the ride. If we’re wrong, we’ll fail. But failure in a good cause is better than triumph in a bad one. Besides, if we didn’t think we were right about what many people desire, we wouldn’t be trying this in the first place.”
“We not only hope you’ll come along for the ride, we hope you’ll help with the rowing,” they added.
The Weekly Standard shut down in December 2018 after launching in 1995.
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