Hi, honestly listeners.
If you're a regular listener,
then you've heard hundreds of conversations that I've hosted here on this podcast.
Today, I'm doing something different.
It's an announcement and one that I'm so excited to be making.
The Free Press is a news organization above all, so I'll get right to it.
This morning, the Free Press is joining Paramount.
This move is a testament to many things.
The Free Press team, the vision of Paramount's new leaders,
the luck of starting an independent media company at just the right moment,
and the courage of my colleagues to leave behind old worlds to build a new one.
But above all, it's a testament to you, our listeners, our readers, and our subscribers.
From day one, the promise and the business proposition of the free press was simple.
We would marry the quality of the old world to the freedom of the new.
We would seek the truth and tell it plainly.
and we would treat readers like adults capable of making their own choices.
So many people told us this was no longer possible,
that the premise of a media company built on trust rather than partisanship was at best a relic from the past and at worst a fantasy that never was.
They said that the internet killed journalism forever and that there simply weren't enough Americans out there in search of media driven by honesty,
independence, and integrity.