I think ambition often gets the better of most startups and that is especially true with journalism startups. People found companies with the hopes of it being

I think ambition often gets the better of most startups and that is especially true with journalism startups. People found companies with the hopes of it being worth billions and rarely try to make a company worth millions. One great journalism startup that I think is a huge success is Defector. A bunch of journalists, mostly coworkers from a previous media outlet, joined together to create a new company as a worker owned co-op. It's never going to be a unicorn, but it employees a couple dozen people sustainably as they have been profitable every year of their existence. Most importantly, the company is run how the journalists want to run it. They don't chase page views or cover a topic specifically because some businessperson in corporate leadership wants them to cover it. I think we need more of that.