Well-known political writer Ezra Klein will be leaving The Washington Post for The Verge and SB Nation publisher Vox Media where he will be building his own news site, TechCrunch reported. Klein's became popular in policy circles because of his explainer approach to topics regarding policy and eventuarlly had his own team on the "Wonkblog" channel of The Washington Post, the report said.
However, Klein's plan to go into a new media venture was not given the thumbs up by the leadership of The Post, including the media outfit's new owner Jeff Bezos. The cost of Klein's media venture was said to be in the 8-figure range or at least $10 million, TechCrunch reported.
In a post on The Verge, Klein wrote that the new media venture which still goes by the working title of Project X, will concentrate on explanatory journalism while also serving as a sort of clearinghouse for information on fresh topics, the report said.
The mission of the Project X's job announcement page on Vox is placed. It said in part, "We'll have regular coverage of everything from tax policy to True Detective, but instead of letting that reporting gather dust in an archive, we'll use it to build and continuously update a comprehensive set of explainers of the topics we cover. We want to create the single best resources for news consumers anywhere."
While at The Post, Klein was able to build a scrollable graph-friendly newsfeed called "Know More" which led users to click for explanations and satisfy their curiosity. It is though that Klein will be making a more advanced version of the product that will enable readers to learn all they want about a certain topic instead of trying to put only the important details within the story or through links, the report said.
If Klein's new media venture succeeds, this will be another missed opportunity for The Post. Politico's founders first pitched their political blog site to The Post before they began the platform which is now considered necessary reading on Capitol Hill, the report said.
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