New Ownership for The Editors; Same Principles

More growth ahead

Dear Readers:

In March 2024 when I announced the move of FutureOfCapitalism.com and Smartertimes.com to a Substack-based site, The Editors, I said, “I’m excited to share some changes that will accelerate the spread of our vision and increase our impact.”

That turned out, fortunately, to be accurate; our audience and revenues have quadrupled since then. We’ve attracted a distinguished, influential, and sophisticated group of readers—market participants, policy types, editors and owners of other news organizations, present and former government officials, billionaires, philanthropists, college professors, managers of many hundreds of billions of dollars of capital. When people ask me how The Editors is going, I tell them, “good.” And I mean it, with gratitude to readers, sources, partners, God, my family, and to America and its opportunity and freedoms—free enterprise, freedom of the press.

Today I’m again delighted to share a change that will even further accelerate the spread of our vision and increase our impact. The Editors and its editor have been acquired by Washington Free Beacon LLC. A formal announcement of the deal is here.

As an existing reader, you should not expect to notice much difference. I plan to continue writing and reporting here at the same pace on many of the same topics I have been focused on for years—free enterprise, religion, freedom in the world, education and higher education, the rest of the press and how it frequently does a poor job of covering those topics. And yes, Harvard, Mayor Mamdani, the Middle East, the Federal Reserve. The goals remain surfacing surprising new information, identifying trends and patterns, piercing though nonsense, accurately framing issues, providing context, and delivering trustworthy information and analysis to defend and expand freedom and prosperity.

The new ownership will allow The Editors to reach a bigger audience. In addition, as the plural title of the publication suggests, this was never intended to be a one-person show. Even editors need editors, and one of the many attractions of this deal for me is the chance to work with a shrewd one at the Washington Free Beacon, Eliana Johnson. If you are unfamiliar with the Washington Free Beacon I encourage you to check it out and subscribe. It has a sparklingly good weekend section with a lot of star bylines you may recognize —Reuel Marc Gerecht, Richard Norton Smith, Joseph Epstein, Meir Soloveichik, Tunku Varadarajan, Dominic Green, Andrew Roberts, Allen Guelzo. In May 2022, it published “The Letter the Harvard Crimson Won’t Publish.” It does reporting and gets scoops. It published the video of the Heritage Foundation Town Hall. It has no ideological litmus tests beyond, as Johnson put it, “we are strident Zionists.” Also, as that comment suggests, in contrast to the self-important pomposity that afflicts much of the rest of the press, the Free Beacon has a sense of humor, including about itself. That may be the most difficult thing for me to adjust to under the new management.

Rosy talk about acquisition-related synergies and accretions I have seen enough of in my career to be cautious about contributing to the genre. It may be, though, that the tide in the media business is turning from unbundling to bundling. Whatever the capital structure or the business plan, the mission here is to help readers separate truth from rubbish and to have some fun along the way. If you have scoops, be in touch please at ira@theeditors.com. For paid subscribers, special thanks are in order for your support in making this possible. The Beacon’s acquisition means all of my work, like all of theirs, will be free, and in the coming weeks, you will receive a pro-rated refund for the remainder of your annual subscription. Thank you all for being readers of The Editors. And if you are new here and are not yet a regular reader, please sign up—we are pro-growth and aim to keep growing in the days and years ahead.