Just how big is the market for news about the news?
That’s a question that Oliver Darcy, a veteran media reporter, is poised to answer. He announced on Thursday that he would leave his longtime perch at CNN, where he writes the widely read Reliable Sources newsletter, to start an independent, subscription-based news site dedicated to the media industry.
Mr. Darcy, 33, is tossing his fedora into a crowded ring. Puck, another digital outlet, has found success with bespoke emails focused on media gossip in Manhattan, Hollywood and Washington. Semafor recently debuted a media-focused podcast, “Mixed Signals,” and The Hollywood Reporter beefed up its media coverage this year.
Mr. Darcy’s new venture, called Status, will be similar to the daily media digest that he helped lead for four years at CNN, with a mix of reporting and analysis. Topics will range from Silicon Valley to presidential politics to the effects of artificial intelligence technology on news consumption.
“We are trying to connect all these dots on a nightly basis,” he said in an interview.
Reliable Sources, founded in 2015 by the journalist Brian Stelter, is distributed free by CNN. Subscriptions to Mr. Darcy’s version will begin at $15 a month or $150 per year; an elite membership, with perks like private Zoom calls, is available for $595 annually. The first issue is set to appear on Monday.
A number of journalists have departed traditional news organizations to try their luck on subscription sites like Substack. Mr. Darcy plans to start with an initial sponsor (he declined to specify the company) and an ad sales partnership with The Ankler, a start-up that covers Hollywood. He has no outside investors, and for now Mr. Darcy will be reporting alone.
“My pitch to readers is this is a 100 percent independent voice,” he said. “I don’t think there’s one product out there that does exactly what we do.”
Politico Playbook and Axios AM, the flagship newsletters of their news outlets, expanded into live events. Reliable Sources, at CNN, did not follow suit, and the network canceled a long-running television show of the same name in 2022.
Mr. Darcy joined CNN in 2017. His scoops over the years included the discovery of racist messages by a writer for Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program and, more recently, MSNBC’s decision to pre-empt “Morning Joe” after an assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump.
Mark Thompson, CNN’s chairman, wrote in an email that Mr. Darcy was “never afraid to call it as he sees it” and described him as “a great shepherd” of Reliable Sources. The network said the newsletter would go on hiatus.
Janice Min, the chief executive of The Ankler, said she was rooting for Mr. Darcy.
“People will pay for the convenience of not poring through internet sludge all day and having someone clarify what they need to know,” Ms. Min said. “Oliver has proved that people want to know what he says.”
“I like that he’s taking this swing,” she added. “And, as we know, no one likes to read more about media than people in media. There will be a built-in audience out of the gate.”
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