A new media order is emerging

Journalism isn’t dead. It’s on Substack.

On Saturday, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner will take place against a backdrop of political tumult and media collapse. Once a marquee event for Washington’s political class, it now anchors a weekend of parties with a festival-like feel, where the nation’s power brokers gather to drink sponsored cocktails, gossip about industry trysts, and, ostensibly, celebrate the First Amendment.

Substack is hosting one such party—at the exact same time as the Correspondents’ Dinner, which will proceed this year without either its scheduled comedian, Amber Ruffin (whose criticisms of President Trump proved too controversial), or the president himself.

The president won’t be at our party either, but hundreds of other media people, Important Political Figures, and independent journalists will be. They come from different political persuasions, backgrounds, and convictions, but they are all on the front lines of a foundational shift in media—a reimagining of how we understand the world around us in this period of profound transition.

This year’s events come with a fair serving of discomfort. Traditional media institutions continue to contract, often locked in open hostility with the presidential administration. The social media feeds that dominate mindshare are pushing us to outrage and division more than ever. Public trust in the media has cratered to historic lows. It’s not clear that everyone who will be attending these parties even shares a common view of what “press freedom” means. Even the new wave of political influencers is not immune to this confusion. Some critics worry, reasonably enough, that the new voices are not so much uncovering truths as credulously shilling for their ideological teams while getting high on clicks.

But the people who will be at Substack’s party, in person and in spirit, are living proof that the reverse can be true. Many of the publishers who are thriving on Substack today cut their teeth in legacy media, and they are carrying forward those values and journalistic standards into this new space. Others come from outside that system, bringing fresh perspectives and insight to the political discourse, challenging authority and speaking truth to power. It is a sometimes cantankerous lot—argumentative and skeptical; prickly and proud. They’ll probably have fun in one another’s company on Saturday night and then be at each other’s throats the next day. And that’s as it should be. The strength of this place is in its free people. This contest of ideas—the dialogue and disagreement, the dissent and dispute—is what makes America great, and it’s what makes Substack great too.

We are all now part of an ecosystem that can usher in a new kind of order, where the power is distributed among the many instead of the few. We can take part in a discourse that unleashes expression rather than suppresses it, but that also demands substance—where success is built not on momentary clicks but on deeper connection. The people who will join us on Saturday night are the pioneers of this new order, refusing to bow to the cynicism of the current media moment and showing the way to something better.

And you are too. Your support of these independent voices is a vote not just for them but for a better media system—one that combines the quality of traditional media with the reach of social media. You are investing in a system that rewards integrity, that is powered by relationships instead of attention, that redistributes ownership and power. In this new order, we are all now the power brokers. That’s what we’ll be celebrating this weekend, and then for years to come.