The big news of the new year – for those of us in the online world anyway – is that Andrew Sullivan is leaving Tina Brown’s Daily Beast and taking his blog independent again. I’m not sure anyone should be surprised by this. Although Sullivan’s site has been hosted by a succession of media “brands” his own “brand” has become steadily stronger than those of his hosts.
You weren’t reading Time or the Atlantic or the Daily Beast you were reading Andrew Sullivan and it just happened that these other organisations were kind enough to host Sullivan and his team. They may have helped Andrew’s audience increase but it was increasing anyway. They have now served their purpose and Andrew is returning to the independent world. I suspect that being his own boss suits him better anyway.
Of course, he’s returning to independence with a staff of seven now (two of them paid interns) whereas back in the pre-cambrian era his two “pledge weeks” each year only needed to support himself.
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