A host of corporate media outlets and their parent companies took in taxpayer cash from government customers over the last decade, federal records reveal.
Outlets such as Politico, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones & Co Inc., The Associated Press and others raked in taxpayer dollars from a myriad of federal agencies, according to public U.S. spending records. Trust in the corporate media has plummeted to its lowest levels since at least 1972, as numerous reporting blunders from major outlets continue to drive trust down.
Politico has taken a grand total of $35,018,269 in obligated taxpayer dollars in the form of contracts from 2015 to present day, with some longer-term contracts extending all the way to 2029, according to the spending data. Politico Pro subscriptions accounted for $8.2 million of spending, which includes a networking framework in addition to granting access to paid content, according to Politico’s website.
A subscription to Politico Pro can cost approximately $10,000, and is commonly used among Hill staff of both parties. Politico’s customers included the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Agriculture, and The Executive Office of the President (EOP) among many other agencies, according to spending data.
Politico CEO Goli Sheikholeslami said in a Wednesday memo to staff that the outlet has “never been the beneficiary of government programs or subsidies,” and that the “overwhelming majority” of its customers are in the private sector.
Dow Jones & Co Inc. raked in more than $4 million in government contracts, which included purchases of WSJ content from the DOD, the EOP and the Department of Treasury among many other government customers, according to spending data. Other purchases reflected in the total included Dow Jones Risk Compliance services, Factiva, a business intelligence database, and access to Barron’s, another outlet owned by the parent firm.
