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Leaving The Post Behind

status.news · last updated July 27, 2025 – 10:08 PM

<div><div><div><div><img src="https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,quality=80,forma…; alt=""><div>Dave Jorgenson in a YouTube video. (Screen grab)</div></div></div></div><div>Dave Jorgenson—perhaps more commonly known as “The Washington Post TikTok guy” who helped bring serious journalism to short‑form video—announced this week that he had left the legacy newsroom to launch something entirely his own. After six years and more than a billion views under the “Washington Post Universe” banner, Jorgenson is striking out with Local News International, a <a href="https://lni.media">new media company</a> he co‑founded with two former colleagues from The Post.</div><div>His goal: to build a multiplatform news brand that blends humor, reporting, and the personality‑driven style that made his TikToks a hit with Gen Z. </div><div>In a conversation with Status, Jorgenson opened up about why he walked away from The Post and how he hopes LNI can become “The Daily Show” of the TikTok era. He also spoke about the dismal state of The Post—and why he still wants his old newsroom to succeed.</div><div>Below is our Q&A, lightly edited for style.</div><div>Take us back to the beginning—what sparked the idea that short-form video on TikTok and other platforms could be a powerful tool for serious journalism?</div><div>I had been hired at The Washington Post, in part, to reach younger audiences on platforms like YouTube. In 2017, I started The Washington Post Department of Satire on YouTube to … no acclaim. It got about 6,000 followers in two years from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gl1A2-88gY">videos like this</a>.</div><div>Like a true millennial journalism dork, I didn’t hear about TikTok from someone using it. I read about TikTok in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/what-tiktok-is-c… article</a> by Taylor Lorenz in October of 2018. When I downloaded the app, I was stunned by how engrossing it was and immediately shifted my strategy to TikTok. I feel partially responsible for the rise of the important (but also kind of annoying) phrase repeated everywhere by everyone—“meet people where they are.” I couldn’t stop saying it in 2019, but I believe I proved I was right.</div><div>We started reposting those TikToks to that Dept. of Satire channel in 2022 as YouTube Shorts. They started taking off so we rebranded all TikToks, Shorts, and Reels as Washington Post Universe. In June, we <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYBARVyitZWkFKovnC2jf2g">hit a billion views</a> on YouTube. It is absolutely a powerful tool for journalism.</div><div>For years, many news organizations seemed to treat TikTok and similar platforms as beneath them. In hindsight, how big a misstep was that? And inside a legacy newsroom like The Post, how hard was it to convince colleagues that these platforms required native, platform-specific storytelling?</div><div>I think it was a misstep. Just across the street from The Post building is an amazing new museum called Planet Word. In one of their many interactive exhibits they explain how teenage girls are the number one source of new words and language. In 2019, TikTok was like a window into that as Gen Z found their voice. Why wouldn’t you want to be there, if just to understand how the next generation spoke and thought?</div><div>That said, other news organizations likely had a lot of factors working against them that I was lucky enough to overcome.</div><div>At least three things worked in my favor from the beginning:</div><div><ol><li><div>In 2019, The Post encouraged this kind of innovation and allowed time for it to foster. I felt encouraged by the success of the Post reddit account to pitch TikTok. </div></li><li><div>I had already been there for two years. That’s really important. I had formed relationships <a href="https://x.com/davejorgenson/status/1202674566394531841">across the newsroom</a> that made it easier to get people to buy-in. </div></li><li><div>I got buy-in partially by putting people on camera. To his credit, Marty Baron agreed to appear in <a href="https://x.com/davejorgenson/status/1151167185508851717">an early TikTok</a> where I mistook him as Liev Schreiber (the actor who played him in “Spotlight”). With Marty in a video, I could approach other Pulitzer Prize winning journalists and say, “Hey David Fahrenthold, Marty did it too.” With buy-in from the top, it was easy to get buy-in from everyone.</div></li></ol></div><div>In general, it helps to have good leaders around you. The person who ultimately let me start an account “under the radar” was Micah Gelman, former head of video, and now one of my fellow co-founders at Local News International.</div><div>My editor Lauren Saks took on the responsibility of editing and approving every TikTok for nearly six years. She also helped field any questions or concerns from others. Meanwhile, I had to freedom to play in my TikTok and Shorts sandbox and find out what worked. Lauren is also a co-founder at LNI.</div><div>The Post just announced it’s creating new roles focused on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram—essentially doubling down on the space you pioneered there. What do you make of that move?</div><div>I think it’s great they’re focusing on those platforms. We did a couple surveys with The Washington Post Universe audience while I was there. Both times, over 10,000 people responded within two hours—far more than we needed—and we had to shut the survey down (a good problem to have!). One of many positive takeaways was that viewers overwhelmingly trusted the paper more as a result of following us on TikTok and Shorts. It’s good short-term for The Post but also long-term when you consider future subscribers that we build trust with when they were teens.</div><div>Why leave The Post? Be honest!</div><div>I’ve been considering leaving for a long time. Despite my goofy, care-free online persona, I’m extraordinarily careful and risk averse when it comes to career changes. Especially with my family (featuring an adorable, slightly-crazy toddler) to consider, I did not want to make the big move until I felt I had a legitimate path to success.</div><div>Learning that Lauren and Micah wanted to come along with me was one of the final “oh this is it” moments. I’ve even got another former Postie, Sarah Hashemi, working with me. From day one in 2019, Sarah made our entire graphics package for Washington Post Universe. She’s responsible for the all-new LNI logos and graphics you’re seeing on our socials and <a href="http://lni.media/">newsletter</a>.</div><div><p… mentioned this in The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/business/media/dave-jorgenson-video-…; that the vision is not consistent at The Post. It’s like watching a basketball player pivot on both feet multiple times, but there’s no referee, or voice of authority, to call them out. I feel for my incredibly talented colleagues there who are preserving and thriving in spite of what’s going on above them. I desperately want them, and The Post, to succeed.</div><div>Your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW9-yE4KqtU">announcement video</a> for Local News International—a tongue‑in‑cheek open letter to Jeff Bezos—felt like classic Dave Jorgenson. But seriously, how do you assess Bezos’ stewardship of The Post in recent years?</div><div>You know, Bezos, I’m told, is the person who signed off on expanding the TikTok team, which allowed us to hire Carmella Boykin and Chris Vazquez as co-hosts of the channel. For years, Bezos was seen as hands-off editorially but also there to help push initiatives the newsroom cared about. I often reminded our viewers of this in the comment section: “Yes, he owns the Post. No, he’s never stopped anything I’ve made.”</div><div>So—he gets it! Or, got it then, before the Kamala Harris endorsement was spiked. If you’re trying to make sense of what’s going on, you’re not alone. That newsroom is (still!) filled with extraordinarily talented people, who want to make it better. I hope he lets them.</div><div>Tell us about Local News International. What’s the vision, and what kind of content should subscribers expect from you out of the gate?</div><div>From the jump, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zN8uvnFLoZ8">starting last week</a>, I’m posting the same Shorts and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@davejorgenson/video/7529950625791020318?lang=en…; my audience knows and expects. That’s our bread and butter. You don’t take away your best menu item! But, to continue this weird kitchen metaphor, we’ve got a lot more cooking. A brand new menu item: we launched our <a href="https://lni.media/p/issue-1-trump-vs-the-ivy-league">first newsletter</a> last Thursday, which will be written by former Washington-Post-TikTok-intern-turned-colleague-turned-ex-colleague, Chris Vazquez. He will dive deeper into the four videos we’ve posted every week. And I provide my take at the end of each newsletter. This is on beehiiv’s platform—not Substack. We’re super excited about what Beehiiv has to offer.</div><div>Finally (for the main course?), we’re in the process of talking to potential partners in the media on a weekly video series. I really think of our audience like that of “The Daily Show’s,” when it exploded in the mid-2000s. People were shocked to see millennials getting their news from Comedy Central. Similarly, in 2025, some people are just coming to terms with the massive audience on YouTube, and their appetite for funny, concise news.</div><div>On average, in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@washingtonpostuniverse">Washington Post Universe</a> our audience was in their early 20s. This data is consistent on my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@DaveJorgenson">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/davetakespictures/">Reels</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@davejorgenson?lang=en">TikTok</a> channels as well. We’re often their first stop for news. I think that’s a huge responsibility, as well as a massive opportunity. I don’t want to scare them away from what’s happening locally and internationally, but hopefully make them laugh, learn and stay informed (new merch idea: “Live, Laugh, Get Informed”? Maybe this is the dessert part of the metaphor?).</div><div>How do you see your work at LNI standing apart from what you built at The Post? What will feel different about it to viewers?</div><div>The <a href="https://lni.media/">newsletter</a> and long-form series will be the biggest, most obvious initial differences. The tone and general point-of-view will remain largely similar to The Post, but we’re building out our style guide and standards in real-time, and that’s where you’ll start to see some differences. I plan on making a longer explainer video diving into the history of style guides and newsroom policies. Then, I’ll post Shorts that cover one specific topic at a time, as they come.</div><div>Some examples we’ve already established in our first newsletters but will also cover in future videos:</div><div><ol><li><div>Lying is not a mistruth or false statement. It’s a lie. </div></li><li><div>State abbreviations will just be two letters (not Calif. for example). Yes, this is a funny hill to die on but style guides are inherently funny, in my opinion! </div></li><li><div>If someone is participating in fascist behaviors, then they’re a fascist. And we’ll say that. </div></li><li><div>The Gaza-Israeli conflict is undoubtedly complicated. But what’s happening in Gaza right now is genocide. And we will call it that.</div></li></ol></div><div>What’s your ultimate ambition for LNI Media? How big could this get if everything goes right?</div><div>There’s no ceiling. I mean it when I say I want to be “The Daily Show” or “Colbert Report” for this generation—and the next. I’m bringing The Post’s two best video strategists with me. We have the audience, platform, tools and desire to pull this off.</div><div>It doesn’t mean our show will look like “The Daily Show” or a traditional news set. I’m shooting this out of a bedroom-turned-office-studio in my house. I share a wall with my daughter’s room, so I can’t even record after bedtime. Right now, she is attempting to walk on my keyboard. But I think that’s the charm of it. You’re getting your news in a personable way from a person you trust, in my funny little studio in Kansas City.</div><div><div><img src="https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,quality=80,forma…; alt=""></div></div><div><div><a href="https://link.chtbl.com/PowerLines_Status_SocialsMulti?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNh… src="https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,quality=80,forma…; alt=""></a></div></div><div>In this week’s episode of Power Lines: We look at Jeff Bezos’ shake-up of The WaPo’s opinion section under new editor Adam O’Neal—and what it signals for the newspaper’s future. We dive into the end of “The Late Show,” with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart openly ridiculing Paramount’s claim the storied program was solely cancelled for financial woes and “South Park” skewering the decision as caving to Donald Trump. And we examine MAGA Media’s sudden silence after The Wall Street Journal reported Trump once sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday card.</div><div><div><div><img src="https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,quality=80,forma…; alt=""></div></div></div><div><div><img src="https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,quality=80,forma…; alt=""><div>The Washington Post Friday front page. (Courtesy of WaPo)</div></div></div><div><ul><li><div>News organizations spotlighted images of starving children in Gaza—with several newspapers doing so on their front pages—as outrage grows over Israel's blockade.</div><div><ul><li><div>The Committee to Protect Journalists warned journalists in Gaza are "being starved." [<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/877d114b-6c53-4411-b05a-bb5796abb566">FT</a>… to the worldwide fury, Israel over the weekend paused some fighting in parts of Gaza and allowed aid in. [<a href="https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-hamas-gaza-news-07-27-25">CN… news organizations, however, want more. They are demanding Israel let reporters into Gaza to cover the story. [<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/world/middleeast/gaza-starvation-rep… Trump posted a deranged note on Truth Social calling on Beyoncé to be prosecuted for something she did not even do. [<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/27/politics/trump-beyonce-prosecute-fact-ch…, Dan Bongino posted an ominous note on X stating that what he has learned during his time as FBI deputy director has "shocked me down to my core." [<a href="https://www.thewrap.com/dan-bongino-statement-fbi-corruption-investigat… Wrap</a>]</div></li><li><div>Former “CBS Evening News” anchor Connie Chung said she fears "the end of CBS News" as she knew it as David Ellison takes over Paramount. [<a href="https://www.thewrap.com/connie-chung-shari-redstone-ellisons-cbs/">The Wrap</a>]</div></li><li><div>The cancelation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is raising questions about the future of late-night. Notably, however, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” remains profitable for ABC, a person familiar with its finances told Sarah Whitten, Lillian Rizzo, and Alex Sherman. [<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/26/cbs-canceling-colbert-raises-late-night… Morgan blamed Colbert for his show’s cancelation, claiming late-night hosts have become “nothing more than hyper-partisan activist hacks for the Democrats… No wonder Colbert got canned. More will follow.” [<a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/piers-morgan-no-wonder-stephen-colbert…;“The Daily Show” torched “CNN’s MAGA troll” Scott Jennings in a brutal segment highlighting the absurd commentary the news network pays him to deliver to its viewers. [<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktu9CBGH9rk">YouTube</a>]<…; and Skydance said they expect their merger to close Thursday, August 7. It will trade on Nasdaq with the "PSKY" ticker. [<a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/paramount-skydance-deal-close-date-123… an unrelenting legal assault from Elon Musk, Media Matters has contemplated shutting down, Kenneth Vogel, Kate Conger, and Ryan Mac reported. [<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/us/politics/media-matters-musk-crisi…;👀 Charlie Kirk co-hosted "Fox & Friends" this weekend. [<a href="https://www.threads.com/@aaron.rupar/post/DMnaXHks6yd?xmt=AQF0Y6OAo4I89… Todd declared that he has a "real problem" with interviewers booking Hunter Biden. [<a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/podcasts/chuck-todd-has-a-real-problem-w… News personality Guy Benson and network correspondent Alicia Acuna cautioned conservatives against celebrating Trump's targeting of "The View," arguing another White House could "do the same" to Fox News. [<a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/fox-news-correspondent-warns-collea… src="https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,quality=80,forma…; alt=""></div></div></div><div><div><img src="https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,quality=80,forma…; alt=""><div>A still from "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." (Courtesy of Marvel)</div></div></div><div><ul><li><div>Marvel’s "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" opened to a solid $118 million at the domestic box office.</div></li><li><div>"Superman" added $24.9 million to its coffers; "Jurassic World: Rebirth" $13 million; "F1: The Movie" $6.2 million; and "Smurfs" $5.4 million.</div></li></ul></div><div>[<a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/2025W30/?ref_=bo_hm_rw">Data via Box Office Mojo</a>]</div></div>

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Leaving The Post Behind

here today, more tomorrow