NOTUS
U.S. center-left (nonpartisan-leaning training newsroom)
Background
NOTUS launched in 2023 as the flagship publication of the Allbritton Journalism Institute, a nonprofit 'teaching hospital' model where early-career fellows cover government and politics alongside veteran editors. It was conceived by Robert Allbritton, who had earlier built and sold Politico, as a response to shrinking opportunities for young journalists at traditional outlets. The outlet built a reputation for fast, detailed Capitol Hill and campaign coverage, and Media Bias/Fact Check has rated it left-center in framing but high in factual accuracy, with no major fact-check failures. In March 2026, following large layoffs at The Washington Post, Allbritton announced plans to roughly double NOTUS's staff and reposition it as a broader Washington-focused news outlet competing directly with the Post. That plan evolved through a short-lived 'The Star' rebrand announcement in April 2026 before the outlet settled on the name 'The Washington Sun' in September 2026, adding local news, neighborhoods, and sports coverage and introducing a subscriber paywall. Its coverage of the second Trump administration has spanned tariff policy, Iran-related Senate disputes, and routine Capitol Hill reporting, generally read as factual rather than strongly partisan, though its institutional roots and the perspective of its early-career reporting staff give it a modest center-left tilt in story selection.
Sources
- NOTUS (website) — Wikipedia
- The Washington Sun (website) — Wikipedia
- The Washington Sun (NOTUS) - Bias and Credibility - Media Bias/Fact Check
- NOTUS plans to rebrand and build 'the next great Washington newsroom' — Nieman Lab
- Exclusive: Politico founder plots new Washington newspaper war — Semafor
- NOTUS to Rebrand as 'The Star' in Expansion to Local, Sports News — TheWrap
- The Washington Sun Media Bias — AllSides
Profile compiled 2026-10-02; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.