Columnist Jennifer Rubin latest evacuee as Washington Post’s numbers rapidly sink

The only thing missing is hearing Washington Post Jeff Bezos owner declare: “I’m the King of the World!”

The Washington Post’s circulation is rapidly sinking and some of it’s highest profile top talent have been abandoning ship. The latest evacuee is columnist Jennifer Rubin, who took some potshots at her longtime newspaper amid an announcement she and Norm Eisen were launching a new media outlet to combat “the authoritarian threat.”

Semafor reports the Post’s shocking new circulation numbers:

Washington Post subscribers quit the paper en masse following owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to withhold its endorsement of outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris. But the Post’s audience problems extend beyond angry former subscribers.

Over the last four years, web traffic has cratered. According to internal data shared with Semafor in recent weeks, the Post’s regular daily traffic last year sunk to less than a quarter of what it was at its peak in January 2021. That month, the Post briefly reached a high of around 22.5 million daily active users following the attack. But by the middle of 2024, its daily users hovered around 2.5-3 million daily users.

Meanwhile, Rubin isn’t simply leaving the Post and launching a new online news site but pointedly underscoring why she’s leaving at this time and why a new online info source is needed. CNN’s Brian Stelter:

Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is becoming the latest in a long list of Washington Post figures to leave the troubled institution.

Rubin is partnering with former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen and launching something new: a startup publication called The Contrarian.

The startup’s tagline, “Not owned by anybody,” is a pointed reference to billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and other moguls who, in Rubin’s view, have “bent the knee” to President-elect Donald Trump.

“Our goal is to combat, with every fiber of our being, the authoritarian threat that we face,” Rubin told CNN in an interview ahead of the publication’s introduction.

Rather than anti-Trump, the founders describe their venture as pro-democracy. They said they have already enlisted about two dozen contributors, including people who played prominent roles in debunking 2020 election denialism and investigating the January 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol.

“The voices we’ll be featuring are diverse across parties and generations,” Eisen said in a statement, “connected by the shared belief that we need an unshackled media in order to meet this moment, as we face an existential threat to American democracy.”

The Contrarian joins a growing group of publications – like The Bulwark and Zeteo, to name two – that are built on the Substack newsletter platform. Starting Monday, it will publish some content for free but will charge $7 a month for complete access to columns, podcasts, and videos.

Eisen, a regular presence on cable news who is departing his CNN legal analyst role, will be the publisher. Rubin will be the editor-in-chief.

A 14-year veteran of the Post’s opinion section, Rubin said she resigned because “the Post, along with most mainstream news outlets, has failed spectacularly at a moment that we most need a robust, aggressive free press.”

“I fear that things are going from bad to worse at The Post,” she added.

Rubin cited numerous controversies, including Bezos blocking the editorial board’s planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in October and Amazon, which Bezos founded, making a $1 million donation to Trump’s inaugural fund. She said a major factor in her exit was the Post’s recent refusal to publish a satirical cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes showing Bezos and others on bended knee. Telnaes resigned as a result.

[…]\ Rubin’s concerns about the Post, including about its independence, have been shared by others, and boldface names from both departments have departed in the past couple of months, sapping morale inside the organization.

Rubin said the name of her outfit, The Contrarian, signaled “we’re not going with the herd,” meaning with the billionaire types that have sought to “curry favor” with the president-e

The Washington Post was a great, historic newspaper. I thought being bought by a billionaire would protect its solvency and integrity. But billionaires needing to ass-kiss Trump to protect their interests has put an end to that. One of many things to mourn.

— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) January 13, 2025

Jen Rubin's resignation announcement from The Washington Post: "Jeff Bezos and his cronies accommodate and enable the most acute threat to American democracy—Donald Trump…" pic.twitter.com/tFdWdQd4Im

— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) January 13, 2025

Jennifer Rubin has resigned from the Washington Post and she’s launching a publication with Norm Eisen. pic.twitter.com/8P1rSXUIhl

— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) January 13, 2025

Why did we create The Contrarian?

Because democracy is at stake; Because corporate media isn’t cutting it; Because Trump’s second act will be worse than his first@JRubinBlogger & I are building the pro-democracy media we needhttps://t.co/r25BVWrKvg

— Norm Eisen (#TryingTrump out now!) (@NormEisen) January 13, 2025

Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin blasts The Washington Post while announcing her exit:

"Bezos ‘bent the knee’ to Trump. Jeff Bezos and his fellow billionaires accommodate and enable the most acute threat to American democracy—Donald Trump—at a time when a vibrant free… pic.twitter.com/CUlBbvilwX

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) January 13, 2025

Former conservative-turned-moderate Jennifer Rubin left the Post's opinion pages to join a new venture with legal expert and former ethics czar Norm Eisen.

Top Washington Post columnist ditches paper and takes a shot at Jeff Bezos on the way outhttps://t.co/D3NIieURBh

— ???? Lauren Ashley Davis – OG Meidas Might ??? (@Meidas_LaurenA) January 13, 2025

Image by Willy Stöwer – Archive of File:Stöwer Titanic.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70786767

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