Something interesting happened today. Semafor reports:
Sherwood, the media arm of the retail trading platform, Robinhood has poached a half-dozen high profile journalists to lead its Spring launch. Walter Hickey, the Business Insider data guru who won a Pulitzer for his role in a graphic novel-style treatment of the oppression of Uyghurs, who will be executive editor of the the new venture, and joined by Axios’ Matt Phillips; the former Vox data journalist Rani Molla; Jack Raines, who is leaving the Exec Sum newsletter; and the former Gawker and Outline chief Leah Finnegan, who will be features and magazine editor. Sam Ro, who will keep running his own TKer substack, one of our favorites, will also be a consulting editor on the project. They’re joining a team of about a dozen working on the Snacks newsletter and Chartr data product. “These editors and writers are wildly creative and deeply experienced, and are not only defining the voice of our news experience, but actively working to move journalistic storytelling forward in ways that really matter,” said Sherwood president and EIC Josh Topolsky.
What’s more curious is the original vision for Sherwood and its publication Snacks. In Axios a year ago:
Robinhood will support the creation of the outlet to start, but Topolsky plans to create commercial opportunities for the editorial products he’s building….
“It’s a significant, long-term investment,” Topolsky said when asked about Robinhood’s commitment to the new outlet. There are “a lot of resources being dedicated to this project.”
Topolsky plans to hire dozens of employees this year, including reporters, editors and social media content creators.
In addition to Snacks, he hopes to launch new newsletter products across specific verticals related to business and finance.
One idea he’s considering is creating specific newsletters that cover high-profile companies, such as Tesla or Disney….
Topolsky likened Sherwood to the media arm of Bloomberg LP, a financial software company owned by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Media is supported by Bloomberg LP but operates independently.
“Robinhood essentially has created like a ‘Terminal’ for everybody,” Topolsky said. News and information “can be a great value add.”
(I had no idea about Josh’s history with Bloomberg.)