The Scoop
A group of media veterans and Democratic political operatives are launching a new for-profit digital news outlet in Texas.
The Barbed Wire is a new state digital news outlet that on Monday will begin churning out Texas-focused stories on culture, politics, and entertainment. The project was the result of almost a year and a half of planning by Jeff Rotkoff, the Texas state director of Democratic-aligned super PAC Forward Majority, and Olivia Messer, a former Texas reporter and alumna of the Daily Beast (and a former colleague of this Semafor reporter at the Beast).
In an interview with Semafor, Messer, the outlet’s editor in chief, said she knew Rotkoff from her time covering Texas politics, and had worked with him on some media consulting work. Last year, Rotkoff approached her with the idea of starting a new publication; the two agreed over a shared view that there was an opportunity in the state for a free, quick-twitch digital publication that’s nonpartisan — but won’t necessarily be neutral on issues like climate change or abortion.
“We have so many incredible outlets in Texas, but there are millions of Texans who don’t subscribe to any of the available outlets and don’t read major dailies,” Messer told Semafor.
“I’m really excited to have important, thoughtful content like that, mixed with quick-turn [aggregation]. There are a ton of really excellent local papers still doing excellent work that isn’t reaching wider audiences, and that we would both like to boost and build on that.”
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The publication will be a mix of aggregation, essays, columns, and original reporting, including some statehouse coverage and longer-form investigations. The outlet will launch a newsletter called “Wild Texas,” which was influenced by Messer’s time working on the Daily Beast’s news roundup, the Cheat Sheet. The publication is launching with several columnists, editors, and reporters already on board who will cover entertainment, culture, food, and politics. Brian Sweany, the former editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly, and Jamil Smith, the opinion writer and editor-in-chief of The Emancipator, are both signed on as advisors.
“I truly believe that independent newsrooms that exist to serve their audiences are the future of sustainable journalism,” said Elizabeth Spiers, a New York Times columnist and Gawker veteran who is also advising on the launch. “Texas is one of 50 states, but it’s big, bold, and has a massively outsized impact on shaping American culture. The Barbed Wire might be 1/50th the size of a major newsroom, but we’ve got a team of people who have had a Texas-sized impact as journalists and progressives, and their favorite sport is punching above their weight.”
In background materials shared with Semafor, the outlet said it had a mix of private investors and nonprofit grants behind it, but would also be soliciting member support, with additional revenue from direct advertising and merchandise.
While its mission is not explicitly partisan, the publication has close ties at the top of the organization to Forward Majority. Several of that Democratic advocacy group’s leaders will play a key role at The Barbed Wire: Rotkoff will serve as its publisher, Forward Majority’s Texas comms director Billy Begala will be its managing director for product and operations, and Forward Majority’s CEO, David Cohen, will also serve as The Barbed Wire’s CEO. In a telephone call, Rotkoff told Semafor that The Barbed Wire was a passion project born out of frustration with the erosion of traditional Texas-focused journalism, and said the outlet would be separate from his and the others’ work with Forward Majority.
“The genesis of this is an infinite number of conversations at bars and hotel lobbies and offices, just sort of asking questions about the state of American media consumption and wondering: How do we combat misinformation and disinformation?” he said. “How do we combat dwindling audiences for really good journalism?”