Pressure of Truth
Exposing the spin on all sides of the news.
Outlet profile

The Dispatch

U.S. center-right (anti-Trump conservative)

Owned byPrivately held by its founders and outside investors. Founders Stephen F. Hayes (CEO), Jonah Goldberg (editor-in-chief) and Toby Stock lead it. It has no parent media company.
FundingMainly reader subscriptions. It reported more than 40,000 paying subscribers out of roughly 500,000 total subscribers as of October 2024, and revenue of about $1.9 million. It launched with about $6 million in investor capital. It also earns money from podcasts, sponsorships and events.
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

The Dispatch was started after The Weekly Standard shut down in December 2018. Former Weekly Standard editor Stephen Hayes, longtime National Review writer Jonah Goldberg and Toby Stock founded it. A beta launched in October 2019 and the full launch came on January 7, 2020. It began with about $6 million in investment and a staff of eight, and it was among the first media companies built on Substack. Its founding manifesto said it wanted to practice factually grounded journalism for conservatives, apart from the alliance between conservative media and the Republican Party. Senior editor Sarah Isgur, a former Justice Department spokesperson and presidential campaign aide, joined in 2019. The outlet has grown to hundreds of thousands of newsletter subscribers, a smaller base of paying members, and a large podcast and newsletter lineup. It has tried to diversify revenue beyond subscriptions. Its editorial line favors limited government, free trade and traditional conservative principles, which has put it at odds with Donald Trump and the populist turn in the GOP since its founding. In 2026 its podcasts and newsletters have been critical of Trump-era actions such as government-funded campaign ads and a perceived slush fund. Critics on the right call it part of the "Never Trump" conservative establishment. Others see its news reporting as more traditional, with the sharper edge in its opinion and analysis.

Sources

  1. The Dispatch - Wikipedia
  2. Substack's first media company is The Dispatch (Nieman Lab)
  3. Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg will launch The Dispatch (Axios)
  4. The Dispatch's Founding Manifesto
  5. How The Dispatch is diversifying beyond its subscription model
  6. Because He Can - The Dispatch

Profile compiled 2026-10-05; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

← Back to track record