A constellation of ostensibly local publications owned by a Democratic-aligned corporation based in New York City received a record amount of funding from the Soros network during the 2024 election cycle. The news network went on to spend millions on political advertisements praising Democrats and opposing Republicans, without disclosing their partisan ties.
Courier Newsroom is a public benefit corporation that owns and operates a network of 11 media outlets presenting themselves as trusted sources of “local news.” These newsrooms, all of which are located in politically competitive states, however, have historically published favorable pieces about regional and national Democrats while giving unfavorable coverage to Republicans, all without disclosing Courier’s extensive ties to the Democratic Party.
The Fund for Policy Reform, part of the Soros family’s Open Society Foundations network, gave Courier $15 million in 2023 to support its “locally focused journalism,” grant records show. In all previous years combined, Open Society Foundations had given the media operation just $4 million.
Alex Soros, the son of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, took over Open Society Foundations in 2023. The Soros heir, who has since married veteran Democratic operative Huma Abedin, described himself as “more political” than his father in a 2023 Wall Street Journal interview. The Soros family, primarily George and Alex Soros, donated millions to Democratic political campaigns during the 2024 election cycle, and Democracy PAC, the Soros family’s political action committee, doled out nearly $60 million primarily to other Democratic committees between January 2023 and October.
After taking millions from the Soros family, Courier went on to spend nearly $11 million on Facebook and Instagram advertisements during the final months of the 2024 election, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of Meta advertising records covering September, October, and November.
Courier’s advertisement spending, targeted at voters living in swing states, largely highlighted stories from their publications criticizing Republicans and lauding Democrats.
Pennsylvania represented Courier’s largest advertising investment in the final months of the 2024 election with the corporation paying roughly $3 million to promote stories from its local branch, the Keystone. The publication paid to promote multiple stories about Pennsylvania Republicans voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, articles praising her economic policy proposals, and favorable media for vulnerable Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).
Many of the stories Courier paid to promote in Pennsylvania received well over 1 million impressions. Courier spent millions running similar locally targeted advertisements in North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
Alex Soros’s interest in funding Courier fits into a broader trend of his family working to expand its influence over media. Soros Fund Management invested an undisclosed amount into Crooked Media, which hosts Pod Save America and dozens of other popular left-of-center podcasts, in 2022. Later in 2022, Soros Fund Management was involved in Latino Media Network’s $60 million purchase of over a dozen Spanish-language radio networks, spurring multiple hosts to leave their shows over editorial disputes. In February, George Soros spent $400 million to purchase a stake in Audacy, the nation’s second-largest radio network, and in July, Soros Fund Management bought a share in Her Campus Media, a portfolio of brands targeting young women.
Courier’s ties to the Democratic Party go much deeper than simply receiving funding from the Soros network.
The enterprise began as a project of ACRONYM, a nonprofit organization that has spent millions collaborating with the Democratic Party. PACRONYM, the group’s political arm, has also spent millions supporting Democratic campaigns. Democratic megadonors Reid Hoffman and Michael Moritz are among ACRONYM’s wealthiest donors.
ACRONYM parted ways with Courier in 2021, selling the collection of media outlets to a company called “Good Information Inc.,” according to Axios. George Soros and Hoffman were among the initial backers of the media venture.
Tara McGowan, the organization’s founder and current CEO of Good Information Inc., is a longtime Democratic political operative. She worked on President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, as a Democratic senator’s press secretary, and has held positions at various liberal advocacy groups before heading Courier, according to her LinkedIn page.
McGowan justified Courier’s existence by arguing in a leaked 2019 internal memo that the news network exists explicitly to help elect Democrats. Disclosures on Courier’s Meta advertisements do not include information about the corporation’s funding or links to the Democratic Party, allowing the organization to present its content as nonpartisan and neutral news coverage.
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