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Outlet profile

The Washington Sun

U.S. center (nonprofit-backed straight news)

Owned byOwned by NOTUS Media, LLC, which is affiliated with the Allbritton Journalism Institute, a nonprofit founded in 2023 by Politico founder Robert Allbritton. Allbritton is publisher. (Not to be confused with the older Cooke-family weekly Black newspaper of the same name in D.C.)
FundingAn endowment from Robert Allbritton, plus philanthropic grants (reported to include the Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, the Sandpiper Fund and the Google News Initiative), corporate advertising, and syndication fees from local news partners.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

The outlet launched in 2024 as NOTUS (News of the United States), a national politics and policy site backed by Robert Allbritton's Allbritton Journalism Institute. NOTUS was staffed largely by journalists with Politico and other mainstream newsroom backgrounds, and it also distributed content to partner outlets. On September 9, 2026, it rebranded as The Washington Sun and expanded to about 110 staff, including at least 28 former Washington Post employees, after the Post cut its metro and sports reporting earlier in 2026. The new scope adds D.C. government, local news, sports and neighborhoods to national politics. Tim Grieve is editor-in-chief and Arielle Elliott is CEO. Its recent coverage of the second Trump administration includes reporting on a White House media ban, spending cuts, immigration actions and a reporter's question that led to an FEC complaint over Trump's description of MAGA Inc. funds as 'my money.' That is scrutiny-style reporting, not an editorial campaign. The outlet describes itself as independent. As a young rebrand, it has a short track record, and its funding depends heavily on one wealthy benefactor and foundations. An earlier, unrelated Washington Sun weekly, a Black-oriented paper owned by the Cooke family since 1968, also exists, and a separate Washington Sun ran in 1914–1919.

Sources

  1. The Washington Sun (website) – Wikipedia
  2. About The Washington Sun
  3. Washington Sun rises from the ashes of The Washington Post's job cuts – ThePrint
  4. The Washington Sun (NOTUS) – Media Bias/Fact Check
  5. The Washington Sun – Wikipedia (older weekly)
  6. Afternoon Sun: Trump Change – The Washington Sun

Profile compiled 2026-10-22; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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