The Kicker

Latest Episodes:

Magazines Are Back, and They’re Newsletters Oct 29, 2026

Show notes

In early 2024, scores of journalists fled Substack over the company’s refusal to ban Nazi newsletters. Smaller newsletter companies saw an opening. Beehiiv, which was founded in 2021 by former Morning Brew employees, became one of the trendy upstarts, luring journalists such as Oliver Darcy and Ryan Broderick.

Since then, Preeya Goenka—who has spent her career in email and joined Beehiiv in 2022—has expanded the company’s offerings for journalists. Those accepted into Beehiiv’s media collective pay no monthly fee for its service and receive legal support, a healthcare stipend, and audience-engagement help for two years. (It’s worth noting that journalists who aren’t part of that program have expressed frustration with Beehiiv’s rising monthly cost.) Most media collective members are still solo operators, but a growing number are running full newsrooms: Darcy now employs three journalists, while L.A. Material has a ten-person staff covering news across Los Angeles.

I interviewed Goenka about how journalists fit into Beehiiv’s business strategy, who should consider starting a newsletter, and why Substack is definitely not the competition. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes:

Beehiiv Media Collective

L.A. Material

Status

Garbage Day

Credits:

Host: Megan Greenwell

Producer: Amanda Darrach

California’s Big Bet on Government-Funded News Oct 15, 2026

Show notes

Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, had Matt Pearce sweating. Until the day before the signing deadline, Pearce didn’t know if the biggest piece of legislation he had ever worked on—one that creates a new standard for content-neutral government funding of local news—would become law or not.

And then, on September 30, Newsom signed the bill, establishing a groundbreaking precedent for state support of local outlets. Soon, newsrooms will get a twenty-thousand-dollar tax credit every year for each of their first five journalists, plus fifteen thousand more for each journalist after that. If a newsroom opens a new position, that will bring in another fifteen thousand on top of the base credit. Everyone from a solo newsletter writer to Alden Global Capital will be eligible for the money as long as they meet some basic criteria about covering news responsibly for a California audience.

I interviewed Pearce, a longtime Los Angeles Times reporter who switched to government advocacy after taking a buyout, about the long, slow road toward (partial) government solutions to the local news crisis. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes:

“California Roadmap,” Matt Pearce.

“AB-2222 Personal Income Tax Law and Corporation Tax Law: credits: local news outlets: business expense deduction: excessive employee remuneration,” California Legislature.

“Explainer: California’s Community NEWS Act (AB 2222),” Rebuild Local News.

“Local Journalist Employment Credit,” Rebuild Local News.

“Supporting Local Reporting in Illinois: Early Lessons and Opportunities,” Rebuild Local News.

Credits:

Host: Megan Greenwell

Producer: Amanda Darrach

A Victim of the ‘Elon Musk Playbook’ Oct 01, 2026

Show notes

For me, and for most of my fellow millennials in the journalism industry, the idea of spending more than two decades in the same job seems unfathomable. It’s not that I wouldn’t like to, but I’ve never made it more than four years without being laid off or experiencing circumstances so unbearable that I have no choice but to quit.

Alison Gerber arrived at the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2003 as an assistant metro editor. (I first met her the following year, when I landed in Chattanooga for my first real newspaper internship, though she wasn’t my editor.) In 2011, she was named the top editor.

She didn’t leave that job until this summer, when the newspaper was sold and the new owners cleaned house, firing her and more than fifty employees. Several others quit soon after, followed by a smaller second round of layoffs. The new CEO, a local freight executive and luxury magazine publisher named Craig Fuller (who bought the paper with his father, Max), has said his goal is to “follow the Elon Musk playbook” by cutting out “massive levels of bureaucracy” (a characterization of her newsroom Gerber strongly disputes) in order to make the paper profitable. In CJR this week, Riddhi Setty wrote about Fuller’s arrival in the newsroom, where he has prohibited reporters from disclosing their use of AI in articles and has offered hundred-dollar monthly reimbursement for employees who buy GLP-1s through one of his other companies.

I talked to Gerber about her time leading the TFP, which led to three Pulitzer nominations and, for the past two years, recognition as the best large newspaper in Tennessee. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes:

Alison Gerber, “Goodbye to Mark Kennedy—and to an era,” Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Alison Gerber, “A Times Free Press reporter traveled to Mexico for a story. Here’s why,” Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Craig Fuller, “Plans for the Times Free Press put Chattanoogans, families first,” Chattanooga Times Free Press.

“Report: Local Group Buying Chattanooga Times Free Press from Arkansas Owners,” Chattanoogan.com.

Riddhi Setty, “The New Boss at The Chattanooga Times Free Press,” Columbia Journalism Review.

Credits:
Host, Megan Greenwell

Producer, Amanda Darrach

Ruth Ann Harnisch on life as the fairy godmother of newsletters, podcasts, and blogs. Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

If you had lots of money to give away, what kind of journalism would you fund? City hall reporting? Big-swing investigative projects? Detailed coverage of your favorite sports team? The magazine of every narrative writer’s dreams?

Over nearly three decades as a professional philanthropist, Ruth Ann Harnisch has funded many kinds of journalism, several of which fit none of those buckets. Deez Links, Delia Cai’s reliably hilarious “culture and online fixation report.” Oldster Magazine, Sari Botton’s excellent newsletter about aging. The Rumpus, the storied literary magazine recently relaunched by Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman. One estimate hassaid Harnisch ashas been a founding supporter of more than a hundred newsletters—the vast majority of them as no-strings-attached gifts, not investments. The common thread? Publications the world would be worse off without, from the serious to the delightfully silly.

I interviewed Harnisch about her road to philanthropy, how she makes her donation decisions, and why more people don’t follow her philosophy of giving. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Debbie Millman, “Design Matters: Ruth Ann Harnisch,” PRINT.

“Ruth Ann Harnisch,” IMDb.

“About the Harnisch Foundation.”

Tracy Gary, Inspired Philanthropy.

Host, Megan Greenwell

Producer, Amanda Darrach

So Are Nonfiction Books Dead or Not? Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

Anna Sproul-Latimer, a literary agent, on what a shrinking market means for journalists.

After a boom time for nonfiction books during the pandemic, sales have been flat or down for multiple years running. Even veteran nonfiction authors are having trouble landing book deals, and those who do are getting less money. For ambitious journalists, that’s bad news; writing a book has historically been one of the best ways to level up one’s career and supplement low newsroom salaries.

Anna Sproul-Latimer—a veteran agent who represents me, among many other journalists, and writes a terrific newsletter about the publishing industry—doesn’t dispute that things are rough out there. But nor does she buy the narrative, popularized by a viral Wall Street Journal article in May, that the industry is in an irreversible death spiral. There’s still an appetite for reported nonfiction books, she says; the problem is that too many people misunderstand who’s buying them and what that means for what writers should pitch.

I interviewed Sproul-Latimer about the reality of the publishing industry, how she’s seen things change over the course of her nearly twenty years as an agent, and how journalists should think about making book-writing part of their careers. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes:

Anna Sproul-Latimer, “Is Nonfiction Dead?” How to Glow in the Dark.

Anna Sproul-Latimer, “How I Evaluate Submissions,” How to Glow in the Dark.

Anna Sproul-Latimer, “A Note on Our Daddy Issues,” How to Glow in the Dark.

James B. Stewart, Follow the Story.

OK Go, “This Too Shall Pass.”

Host, Megan Greenwell
Producer, Amanda Darrach

Kenya Hunter took a terrifying leap out of journalism. She couldn’t be happier. Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

One of my favorite dive-bar conversations with fellow journalists is “What would you do if you couldn’t do this anymore?” We’ve all thought about it; the tough economics of our industry haven’t left us any choice. It’s such an interesting window into people’s psyches: friends have told me about secret dreams of going to medical or law school, opening a restaurant, running a bed-and-breakfast, teaching kindergartners, and more. (Interestingly, no one has ever told me they would go into PR, which I assume is the most common destination for former journalists by a mile.)

For years, I counted myself a fan of Kenya Hunter’s work covering health access for Capital B and the Associated Press. Now I admire her for another reason: she took the leap to find a career she loved more than journalism. In 2025, after her contract at the AP wasn’t renewed, she did get one of those PR jobs. But she also trained as a doula. Today she provides postpartum care and nutrition counseling to new parents and offers support around abortions to those who need it, with a particular focus on Black people in Atlanta, where she lives.

I talked to Kenya about the transition from writing about healthcare to providing it, what she learned from reporting on race in jobs that weren’t “race reporting,” and how she thinks about her future after so many years of focusing on journalism. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes:

Examining the Lack of Diversity at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School: A Three-Part Series, Kenya Hunter, Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Why Black Doulas Say They Can’t Fix Georgia’s Maternal Mortality Crisis Alone, Kenya Hunter, Capital B.

More Wellstar Closures Bring Dwindling Health Care Options, Kenya Hunter, Capital B.

Hundreds of places in the US said racism was a public health crisis. What’s changed? Kenya Hunter, Associated Press.

Finally I Can Talk, Kenya Hunter.
Credits:

Host: Megan Greenwell

Producer: Amanda Darrach

Twenty Years of Food Blogs: Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman has never needed AI to develop a recipe. Aug 06, 2026

Show notes

A friend recently posted a photo on Instagram of a giant zucchini harvested from her backyard in Chicago, with a caption that she needed recipes that use a ton of zucchini. I knew exactly where to send her. The best food blog on the internet, Smitten Kitchen, has thirty-seven zucchini recipes in its archives, ranging from quesadillas to latkes to chocolate bread. I sent my friend the link to a zucchini butter spaghetti recipe from five years ago—an internet classic.

This summer, Smitten Kitchen celebrates its twentieth anniversary. Since Deb Perelman started the site, in 2006, she’s weathered wave after wave of changes to how food writing on the internet works. A former art therapist and (briefly) tech reporter, she started writing online before Instagram or TikTok existed, and before Twitter and YouTube were part of the job. She was part of an ecosystem of home-cooking blogs, all of which would link to one another, and most of which faded away years ago. SEO boomed, then crashed as a result of Google algorithm changes. Now many people get their recipes from ChatGPT. Yet Smitten Kitchen keeps going, with Perelman still doing almost everything herself.

I learned to cook from Smitten Kitchen, so I was thrilled to talk to Perelman about what’s changed and what hasn’t during her twenty years in food blogging. (Her passionate monologue about the rise of AI in internet writing is an all-timer.) Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes:

About Smitten Kitchen, Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen.

Frequently asked questions, Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen.

Spring panzanella, Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen.

Zucchini butter spaghetti, Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen.

Credits:

Host: Megan Greenwell

Producer: Amanda Darrach

What Went Wrong: A first-time editor in chief reflects on a startup that didn’t work Jul 23, 2026

Show notes

When The Barbed Wire debuted, in 2024, it promised “something different: a site that combines the best of savvy, new-model online journalism with Texas’s deep—and very old—association with progressive ideas.” Its goal, Olivia Messer, the editor in chief, wrote at the time, was to reach the millions of Texans who weren’t reading their local newspaper or any statewide news outlet, and to do it in a way that created a new hybrid for-profit/nonprofit revenue model for journalism.

The Barbed Wire lasted for a little under two years, publishing 725 stories. This spring, it ran out of money. All five journalists on staff lost their jobs. (Two occasional newsletters remain, written by freelancers.) The hybrid business model, it turned out, had made it more difficult to bring in philanthropy money; the roster of paid subscribers never grew big enough to keep the operation afloat.

It’s easier, and more fun, to focus on what’s working in journalism: new startups, growing newsrooms, initiatives at major outlets. But I also think it’s important to dissect what hasn’t worked. In our conversation, Messer was admirably candid about what factors brought down The Barbed Wire. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes:

Goodbye for Now, Olivia Messer, Bluesky.

Our Independent Newsroom Was Built on a Ferocious, Delusional Sense of Hope. Help Us Keep It Going, Olivia Messer, The Barbed Wire.

Are You There, Texas? It’s Me, Olivia, Olivia Messer, The Barbed Wire.

‘Gods in the Building’: How the Texas Senate Buries Sexual Harassment Complaints and Enables Bad Actors, Olivia Messer and Cara Kelly, Texas Monthly.

‘This Is Not Hazing. This Is Rape’: Inside a Texas Town’s Football Nightmare, Olivia Messer, Daily Beast.

Credits:

Host: Megan Greenwell

Producer: Amanda Darrach

Welcome to Hell: A site with personality big enough for the city it covers. Jul 09, 2026

Show notes

Since last year’s uber-competitive New York City mayoral primary, my favorite election night activity has been watching Hell Gate’s live broadcasts. CNN it is not. The Hell Gate show is available only on YouTube; correspondents hold tiny mics with a card bearing the company logo; the set includes a disco ball. During the most recent stream, during the state’s congressional primary last month, Nick Pinto, a Hell Gate reporter, delivered coverage from his bike while commuting between candidate watch parties. The effect is delightful, as the team has managed to turn one of the most staid forms of news into something lively and fun that also offers some of the smartest political coverage in the city.

In just over four years, lively, fun, and smart have become the Hell Gate brand. The site, which is worker-owned and subscription-powered, boasts ambitious investigations—such as this year’s Courts of Contempt project, about the city’s broken process for selecting judges—as well as coverage of the goofy and absurd. The team also hosts events, makes memes, and generally offers something entirely different from any other local news outlet around.

I talked to Max Rivlin-Nadler, a co-owner and copublisher of Hell Gate, about professionalizing the livestreams without sacrificing personality; how reporting on Zohran Mamdani is different from covering his predecessor, Eric Adams; and the site’s coming expansion of its cultural coverage. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes:

Courts of Contempt, Hell Gate and Type Investigations.

2026 Primary Election — LIVE with HellGate, Hell Gate.

The Hell Gate NYC 2025 Primary Night Livestream, Hell Gate.

HellGate election graphics, Hell Gate.

Tall Ships. TALL SHIIIIIIIPS, Hell Gate.

HellGate 2025 Annual Report, Hell Gate.
One Hellish Night, Lauren Watson, CJR
Credits:

Host: Megan Greenwell

Producer: Amanda Darrach

Why Do You Have to Run from Us? Local reporters are struggling to get answers from the politicians they cover. Jun 30, 2026

Show notes

Generations of local journalists mostly took for granted their ability to access elected officials. Talking to the local newspaper or TV station was one of the only ways to get the word out, so politicians didn’t have much choice—even if they were mad at the coverage.

It’s not quite so simple these days. A mayor can talk directly to constituents through social media, or through influencers friendly to their politics. Anti-press sentiment is rampant across the political spectrum, leading some politicians to boycott reporters altogether. As Kyle Paoletta reported in a feature for CJR’s recent Access Issue, elected officials across the political spectrum seem less likely than ever to talk to journalists.

Brandon Johnson, the mayor of Chicago, is one of those press-shy elected officials. Melody Mercado, a staff writer for Block Club Chicago, is one of those journalists often looking for answers. As part of a special event tied to the release of the Access Issue, I interviewed Mercado about the ever-changing relationship between Johnson and the press, why access matters for local journalism, and how she does her job without it. “It’s never good, whenever you see a line that says XYZ did not respond to questions,” as she put it. Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show notes:

City Paying Well More Than Typical Rent for Migrant Shelter Buildings—and Keeping Details Secret, Mick Dumke and Melody Mercado, Block Club Chicago

Johnson’s ex–communications director faced misconduct complaints before firing, Mitchell Armentrout, Chicago Sun-Times

Go Pound Sand!, Kyle Paoletta, CJR
Credits:
Host: Megan Greenwell
Producer: Amanda Darrach
Audio engineer: Fernando Fermino
Video technician: Alex Hamm

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