A Dying Industry
Aemula Writer Spotlight - 2.5.26
“This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations. The Washington Post’s ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be further depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed more than ever.”
— Marty Baron, former editor of The Washington Post
Yesterday, The Washington Post announced layoffs of 300 journalists, roughly a third of their newsroom, gutting and reshaping their sports, metro reporting, books section, and foreign coverage desks. Lizzie Johnson, the Post’s Ukraine correspondent covering the war, discovered she was laid off while stationed in an active war zone (The Washington Post Guild is running a fundraiser to support the journalists affected by these layoffs, and we encourage you to consider a donation). While surely a shocking announcement to those involved, the news of these layoffs was dulled by the tired narrative of shrinking newsrooms.
These layoffs are the latest in a wave of consolidation in the industry. As legacy publications struggle to compete for attention in our modern digital media environment, they fight for survival through consolidation. As they cut costs, we are left with fewer voices reporting the news we read.
Among the fallout, Substack and Beehiiv have made commendable efforts to support the journalists affected by the layoffs. As these platforms have proven, they provide critical tools for journalists to build independent brands, freeing them from staking a career on the shaky foundations of legacy media institutions.
The success of Substack and Beehiiv has demonstrated the viability of the industry-wide shift towards independence, as they now support millions of readers and tens of thousands of writers. However, they are unable to truly fill the void of professional-grade newsroom support resources traditionally provided by institutional publications.
As Tyler Denk, co-founder and CEO of Beehiiv, puts it:
“unfortunately the types of important journalism that requires months-long investigative work, or being stationed in dangerous conflict zones isn't super conducive to this new independent media model (at least not yet). this is where the larger media organizations really shine.
I'm self aware enough to acknowledge that beehiiv, as a nascent technology platform focused on building great product and a platform for independent voices to flourish, cannot possibly offer the security clearances or assurances of a NYT/WaPo to properly support those journalists in active war zones.
I also think it's naive and slightly dishonest of substack to think otherwise”
And we agree with Tyler’s sentiment, with the exception of one key statement — “at least not yet”.
We currently have the ability to solve these problems. Journalists no longer need to accept the tradeoff between independence and institutional-grade support resources. This is exactly the role we aim to fill with Aemula, which we outline in our full response to Tyler’s post:
The choice between individual ownership and access to support resources is a false dichotomy. It was merely a technical limitation that has since been solved. The remaining challenge is one of adoption and scale, and we have never been more confident in the ability to solve this challenge.
Marc Andreessen, in his interview with Packy McCormick on the a16z podcast, discusses the “enormous latent demand” for high-quality media. “The issue is not lack of demand, it is lack of supply”, he acknowledges in addition to the belief that there is potential to increase the size of the existing media news industry by 1000x in terms of collective value.
And it is clear that the belief in this opportunity is no secret. Substack raised $100m last year to grow to “internet scale”, Beehiiv is hoping to double annual revenue to $50m in 2026 in their challenge to Substack’s throne, and X is offering a $1m prize to the top article published on the platform in their effort to promote long-form content.
Where we diverge is in our belief that decentralized, independent journalism is the only way to achieve the scale and efficiency necessary to incentivize the creation of enough high-quality news to meet this latent demand in the industry. Specifically, the type of reporting that requires the months-long investigative work and access to professional resources that Tyler notes Beehiiv and Substack are unable to provide.
Journalism is often viewed as a dying industry only because we have lost our faith in legacy media’s ability to succeed. Their failed attempts to force an antiquated business model onto the modern world only support this theory further. Yet, it is only the institutions that are crumbling. Tens of thousands of journalists work tirelessly to report the news we read, and they deserve to be rewarded in line with the immense value they create, while having access to the resources necessary to produce high-quality reporting. The opportunity for the industry to restructure into a modern model has never been greater.
We have a new model for media. It is time we leverage it to its full potential.
This week, we highlight writers discussing the recent layoffs at The Washington Post and their impact on the industry as a whole. We encourage you to explore their work and consider subscribing directly.
Glenn Kessler
Eponymously written by Glenn Kessler, a longtime Washington Post reporter and former Fact Checker whose Pulitzer Prize–winning career and bestselling books inform his clear-eyed analysis of truth, politics, and public discourse.
“I spent almost a decade as The Washington Post’s diplomatic correspondent — one of the key national security beats at any news organization. But many of my biggest scoops couldn’t have been written without the assistance of Post foreign correspondents on the ground, journalists with their own sources and expertise. When I jaunted around the globe with the U.S. secretary of state, trips often included a stop in a capital where a Post correspondent was based.
That combination of resources and ambition to report news far and wide, without fear or favor, helped make The Washington Post a great news organization, until Wednesday, when Post leadership announced cutbacks so severe and strategy changes so shortsighted that not just the Post but American journalism — and democracy — will be left diminished.”
Silver Bulletin
Written by Nate Silver, a statistician and renowned election forecaster, professional poker player, and author of The Signal and the Noise, previously featured in our spotlight “Divergence”.
“The fracturing of the media ecosystem has produced winners (including Substack, certainly) as well as losers. And outlets like the Wall Street Journal frequently provide excellent political coverage, in addition to their coverage of financial markets. But local and regional news coverage has been hollowed out. It would be good to have at least a handful of truly muscular national news outlets to complement all the niche publishers and opinion sites. We may be increasingly heading to the point where there are just one or two truly comprehensive national news brands, and a long tail of everything else.”
SmallBites
A publication offering concise, no-frills analysis designed to deliver sharp, immediately useful insights for readers seeking clarity, urgency, and actionable understanding without wasted words.
“The silence of leadership weighed heavily. The Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, did not speak during the meeting. One laid-off editor, speaking anonymously, said Lewis’s legacy would be defined by “having enabled Bezos to tank an American institution.”
For years after Bezos purchased the Post in 2013, the newsroom expanded and ambitions grew. That era has clearly ended. Buyouts in late 2023 and 2024 thinned the ranks, and previous layoffs hit technology, advertising, and print operations. But Wednesday’s cuts struck at the journalistic core.
Over the past week, staffers pleaded directly with Bezos, signing letters and posting public appeals that emphasized the civic importance of the Post’s reporting. Those messages went unanswered. Bezos did not respond to letters from the foreign, local, or White House teams.”
Are you writing on Substack? You can easily set up automatic cross-posting with Aemula to instantly:
Increase your earnings
Expand your audience
Verifiably own your work
Plus, you will have opportunities to access community resources and grants to support the content you want to create!
Link your Substack to your Aemula account using this link or reach out to writers@aemula.com to get started!
No cost, no obligations, and you can stop at any time.
If you want to support any of the writers we spotlight in our Substack, we highly encourage you to subscribe to their individual publications.
If you want to support independent journalism more broadly, create an account on the Aemula platform.
To stay up to speed on platform updates and the writers we are adding to our community, Follow us on X or subscribe to our Substack!
Any writers you want to see featured here? Send them our way! We are always searching for great new publications.
