Mainstream media keeps bleeding talent to Substack
'The Atlantic' just lost its best writer and more top journalists will follow suit.
Mainstream media continues to lose the talent war to its own employees.
Early Friday, Derek Thompson, one of The Atlantic’s most celebrated writers, announced he’s leaving the publication after 17 years to start his own newsletter.
Are we really surprised? The exodus from corporate newsrooms has only accelerated the last two years, and consumer publishing platforms like Substack are having their moment.
The pattern is obvious to anyone paying attention.
The writers who are good enough, popular enough, or emboldened enough to go independent are doing so. That leaves mainstream media with a shrinking pool of fresh grads looking for work experience — the best of whom will leave by 28 — and veterans who haven’t kept pace with the times.
Ironically, Thompson broke his own news just one day after New York Magazine reported that The Atlantic has gone on an unusually expensive hiring spree, adding 30 journalists since January and offering salaries in the $200,000 to $300,000 range.
It’s one of the last splashy bets in legacy media, and while intriguing, the economics don’t make sense to me.
ChatGPT and other AI tools have already decimated the search traffic that corporate publishers relied on over the last decade. Productivity gains from those same tools have made content production more efficient, fueling layoffs at Business Insider (my former employer), CNN, The LA Times, NBC, and The Washington Post.
In recent weeks, too, some newsrooms have quietly shopped around “voluntary” buyouts among their staff.
So, pressure is mounting everywhere except The Atlantic, apparently, though the magazine did just lose its star writer.
In a convoluted way, the media and its audience is cannibalizing itself. The economics of the old guard are collapsing and incentives are out of whack.
As readers abandon traditional news sources, they contribute to the erosion of newsrooms, which in turn weakens those companies’ ability to retain talent.
That makes it less attractive for the best writers to stick around.
Then, when those trusted voices leave, their audiences follow — often unsubscribing from the institution in the process.
Round and round it goes.
It’s no wonder why so many journalists are becoming media founders, and why venture firms like Andreessen Horowitz are investing so heavily in the next generation of independent media.
If institutions can’t keep their stars and readers seek out specific bylines over corporate branding, newsrooms must evolve.
The model that got them here — hire teams of reporters, control distribution, monetize search — no longer delivers the ROI it once did.
Meanwhile, most news junkies and young people consume information on X (formerly Twitter) hours before traditional outlets repurpose the same content for a more sterilized write-up.
I could imagine a world where mainstream media brands evolve into something like distribution platforms rather than newsrooms. Something like a talent agency-style model that publishes, but does not own, the work of its contributors.
These would offer a specific type of reach, prestige, and infrastructure in exchange for affiliation.
In this scenario, the brand exists to amplify the writer.
Puck News has built a version of this already, with a portfolio of newsletter franchises built around star journalists. The company encourages its writers to cover what they know best without acquiescing to an in-house style or beat.
I could also see some legacy outlets leaning completely into curation, where early-career reporters could develop their news instincts by surfacing the most interesting content from all sources.
Instead of competing with talented independent journalists on originality, these shops could use their editorial judgment to bundle ideas in service of their audience.
In this model, readership would be cultivated on taste rather than access or voice.
Legacy media knows it’s do-or-die time. The current business model isn’t for long.
But the bright spot is that they remain well-positioned to meet readers’ enormous appetite for high-quality reporting.
Most outlets just have to get a little more creative.
A small minority of institutions, like The Atlantic, will likely survive by doubling down on what they’ve always done.
But doing so will require writers with real cachet and courage — exactly the ones who keep walking out the door.
Phil Rosen
Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief, Opening Bell Daily
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this post, please consider hitting the “like” button to help boost visibility. If the ideas resonated, I’d love to hear why — reply directly to this email or leave a comment below.