Liberal media’s big year online

Last week, Democratic donor advisors, philanthropists, and organizations gathered at the Conrad Hotel in Washington, DC, for a convening of the Democracy Alliance—a longtime major donor collaborative on the Left. Among the attendees was a new class of progressive media entrepreneurs seeking funding for their ventures and hoping to build a real counter to the Right’s massive media machine.

This was just one of many major donor convenings since Election Day 2024 in which Democrats have gathered in private to lament their disadvantages in the media landscape. Operatives and founders have spent the past year urging donors and their advisors to make serious, long-term investments in “communications infrastructure.” A few dozen pitch decks have circulated widely, often anchored by charts and graphics (some from yours truly) about partisan imbalances online. 

Indeed, one year since their catastrophic election loss, Democrats still face a decisive disadvantage in the media space, from YouTube to the podcast charts. On top of that, I’m told by several media builders and donor-advisor types that funding for many new projects has been too slow to move.

“There’s a lot of excitement about solving the media problem, in the way that your extended family is extremely excited to come to YOUR house for Thanksgiving dinner: everyone is ready to eat the turkey, but nobody expects they are going to be the one to buy it or pay the cook,” says Andre Banks, founder of NewWorld Media.

Still, with or without major financial backing, a new ecosystem of liberal media companies and brands is being born. 2025 has seen several left-of-center media operations emerging and scaling rapidly. 

These new media organizations exist on a broad spectrum, from hard news, Leftist investigative outlets with no affiliation with liberal megadonors, to pro-DNC creator cohorts regularly interviewing politicians like Hakeem Jeffries. Some are growth hackers on YouTube, while others are savvy Substack media companies, content production studios, or pie-in-the-sky cultural investments. Some of them seem like genuinely good ideas deserving of support, while others may elicit criticism as a waste of time or resources. A few are doing just fine without philanthropic juicing, having already generated millions of dollars in revenue or attracted billions of content views. Others are struggling to secure funding or remain squarely in the conceptual stage. 

Since these more than two dozen lefty media plays reach different audiences on different platforms with very different strategies and motivations, for the purposes of this report, I’ve attempted to put them into a few categories or buckets. Obviously, there will be some overlap. So, let’s get into it. 

The grassroots growth engines

Perhaps most obviously, this year saw enormous growth for a number of liberal-leaning media brands that capitalized on grassroots opposition to the Trump administration. Meidas Touch, founded initially as a PAC in 2020, added over 2 million subscribers on YouTube and climbed the podcast charts by publishing content at a relentless pace. Their videos are brash and straightforward, optimized to get liberal boomers to pay attention, with video titles like, “GOP Leaders LOOK FOR EXIT as Trump DESTROYS PARTY.” Looking at Meidas’ paid subscriber numbers on platforms like Patreon and Substack, combined with YouTube revenue, it's safe to say that the outlet is bringing in well over $15 million in annual recurring revenue. 

Other brands, like Crooked Media and The Bulwark, publish more substantive content for politically curious, liberal-leaning audiences, and they’ve both had banner years on YouTube, in the podcast space, and by hosting IRL events. Earlier this month, Crooked threw its first-ever large-scale conference (called “CrookedCon”) which attracted a sold-out crowd of operatives and political junkies. The company’s flagship show, Pod Save America, has remained high on the U.S. podcast charts, nearly nine years since its debut.

Meanwhile, The Bulwark has built a solid operation of original reporting via its newsletter vertical, which has brought them more than 100,000 paid subscribers on Substack, a major milestone they hit in July. With subscriptions priced at $10 monthly, that comes out to at least $10 million a year in recurring revenue, just from the newsletter platform alone.

Another brand that has capitalized on Democrats’ grassroots base, particularly on Substack, is Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo. That company launched in April 2024 and has focused its editorial heavily on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. According to Oliver Darcy at Status, Zeteo has grown to around 600,000 free newsletter subscribers, with over 50,000 of them paid. 

The social-first stalwarts

With similarly impressive growth trajectories but reaching audiences a decade or more younger than Meidas Touch’s boomer-heavy subscriber base, a few left-leaning efforts have found success by publishing original content and aggregating clips directly on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. 

That includes social-first media network COURIER (where I worked in 2024), which has doubled its online audience since Election Day 2024, from 4 million followers and subscribers to over 8.5 million. In just two years, it has become one of the largest sources of news for younger Americans on TikTok, blowing past overhyped accounts like The Washington Post in terms of post views, followers, and engagement. COURIER is also one of the only left-leaning media efforts that focuses on the local level, with eleven newsrooms employing award-winning journalists and content creators from Phoenix to Philadelphia.

Also surging on TikTok is longtime liberal video startup NowThis, whose political brand, @nowthisimpact has received billions of views and has over 5 million followers on the platform. A few years ago, NowThis received investment from media funding network Accelerate Change, which has built a large portfolio of other social-first brands like Impact Media  and FEMINIST.

Issue and accountability journalism

Progressive video startup More Perfect Union, founded in 2021 by Bernie Sanders advisor Faiz Shakir, has also had a tremendous year, adding over 1 million YouTube subscribers and garnering 200 million views. The outlet’s video formats stand out from most other successful political YouTube efforts, focusing on deep reporting of issues rather than clickbaity direct-to-camera screeds.  

“We’re creating content about the tech oligarchy or the impact of data centers, and I think that’s where our team is unique on the Left,” says Josh Miller-Lewis, co-founder of More Perfect Union. “When we're at our best, we are tackling questions that millions of people have on their minds, we are providing answers for why those issues exist, and we're connecting them to solutions that are achievable. And I don't think that there's a lot of people on the political side or in media who are doing all three of those things.”

At least topically, MPU’s videos could be compared to those of successful YouTuber and former VOX journalist Johnny Harris, who recently announced he’s turning his video production company into… you guessed it…a new media network called Newpress. 

Less focused on video platforms but producing similar accountability journalism via web reporting and newsletters is The Lever, founded by another former Sanders advisor, David Sirota. There’s also Drop Site News, a spin-off from The Intercept, and Popular Information, longtime progressive journalist Judd Legum’s newsletter operation focusing on corporate and MAGA accountability.  

Creator Infrastructure

Many newer progressive media plays, especially those pitching philanthropy, have emphasized the importance of working with social media creators to disseminate targeted political messaging on their channels and to their audiences, instead of building audiences for a media brand themselves. Those include Chorus, a prominent pro-Democrat political creator coordination group co-founded by Brian Tyler Cohen after the 2024 election, and AND Media, a creator-centric media effort started this year by some of the same people affiliated with the American Bridge network of liberal groups. AND is being run by former Biden White House digital chief Christian Tom, and the group told The New York Times this summer that it had already raised $7 million. 

In fact, it seems like the Democrats’ creator space is getting a little crowded: there are a host of creator-focused media networks and influencer marketing firms boosting liberal candidates and causes, including Good Influence, Vocal Media, People First, Social Currant, and Double Tap Democracy. 

Another piece of new progressive infrastructure in this space that’s a little difficult to categorize is Resonate, an organization founded this summer by veterans of the Center for American Progress. The group serves as a “matchmaking service,” helping connect liberal voices and values-aligned politicians with top social media brands and creators. Resonate also tracks “what’s resonating” online via a must-read daily newsletter. 

Serialized content networks and production houses

Other media efforts have popped up primarily to produce social-first shows and serialized programming, similar to SubwayTakes or BoyRoom in the non-political space. 

One of those is Mutuals Media, an entertainment-first media network that produces the hit TikTok show Gaydar. The company, founded by three former progressive staffers, emphasizes the need for content that people “actually want to watch,” and has focused on building revenue streams that aren’t entirely reliant on philanthropy, securing brand deals with corporate advertisers and mission-aligned impact groups. When they threw their first IRL event for Gaydar this summer—a pride party at The House of Yes in Brooklyn—it quickly sold out, with 800 people buying tickets.

“This year, we started getting more brand deals, bigger guests, more celebrities, which has been really exciting and has put us in a good place,” says Amelia Montooth, co-founder of Mutuals Media. “We’ve had guests on our shows ranging from Zohran Mamdani to Gretchen Whitmer, Renee Rapp, and Chappell Roan, and our advertisers come from both the impact and corporate worlds. Having that kind of breadth is really important.”

Another show-focused media play that is just getting off the ground is Banks’ NewWorld Media, a company that will launch shows and podcasts with an almost scientific approach to audience, targeting “specific segments of the multiracial working class.” “We have four shows being shot in December and coming online in January with another six on the way right behind them,” Banks told me. “We also received a significant commitment from one of the largest foundations in the country to support our work as a critical investment in media innovation for the sector.” According to a recent update, they have raised around $3 million in 2025.

Demographic plays

The obsession with targeting niche audiences is common throughout many of the more recent progressive media pitches to donors. After the 2024 election, many of Democrats’ conversations have focused on how to reach key demographics that may have seen their support for the party’s candidates slide in recent years. A few media-related pitches have attempted to solve some of these problems by focusing specifically on identity-based audiences. 

For example, CNN commentator Ashley Allison, who founded Watering Hole Media, acquired Black-focused news and culture site The Root for an undisclosed sum last month. Democratic consultant Tim Fullerton launched a popular podcast targeting male audiences called Find Out, which he and others have spun into a full-fledged media company, Find Out Media. 

And Jess Morales Rocketto, a Democratic campaign operative and one of the founders of Latino Media Network, has just started a new Latino-focused organization called Maremoto as a spin-off from progressive organization Equis. The new organization, which hopes to raise an $8 million annual budget, will include a few projects, including growing a handful of YouTube shows, offline activations, and an app built for improving Spanish-language Wikipedia. 

Media Funds and Support Ventures

Finally, there are a few other efforts that don’t have public-facing brands at the moment, but are seeking to have an impact on the media space nonetheless. One is Narrowcast Media, founded by Rob Flaherty and Mike Vainisi to focus on monetizing and scaling successful media ventures, modeled after conservative Red Seat Ventures. Another is Project Bullhorn, supporting progressive messaging and amplification on platforms like TikTok and YouTube. Both were previously reported on by The New York Times this summer. 

Beyond brands

I understand the pitfalls of writing about a constellation of media brands and organizations in an era when the entire media ecosystem is shifting away from brands to individual creators and personalities. There are obviously hundreds of progressive or left-leaning creators that have grown their audiences significantly this year (with or without institutional support) that form a central part of the “new progressive media ecosystem.” But, media networks—companies, organizations, brands—still play a huge role in the partisan media space, often taking funding or investment and incubating talent and spawning spin-off efforts. Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Brett Cooper, and Mehdi Hasan are just a few examples of that, using major partisan outlets as a launching pad for their own independent endeavors. 

While some of these partisan media ventures will inevitably fail, the momentum they’re generating is beginning to erode conservatives’ long-held advantage on certain online platforms. If even a few of these organizations succeed in building sustainable business models and maintaining their growth, they could develop an entire constellation of new talent and creators, support other initiatives, and provide a model for others seeking to level the partisan media playing field.

Last week, the Pew Research Center released its annual report on how Americans use different social media platforms. It's packed with interesting data on demographic usage of different social media platforms, from X to YouTube.