After writing for several years what she called a “niche newsletter for Washington Insiders,” political journalist Tarapalmeli decided she wanted to reach a larger audience. Much larger audience.
She reports on YouTube.
Palmeri said she will focus much of her efforts on the streaming giant and leave the Startup Pack to take a strike on her own. She has joined many other journalists who have left the news organization and built their own business around podcasts and newsletters.
But in politics, the most successful of these independent media stars have strong views and clear loyalty. Conservative hosts like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly remain on top of the podcast charts, and the anti-Trump media gang is growing rapidly. Two of them, Paradox and Meidastouch, each had over half a million newsletter subscribers, many of which paid.
That's not Palmeli.
“I'm not on the Crusades,” said Palmeli, 37, the type of political journalist who proudly abstains from voting in elections while covering them to maintain objectivity with his audience. “I'm not sold at either party, so I don't really have a lot of friends.”
In her new venture, Palmeli wants to talk to audiences from the underdeveloped territory of the “middle” without a political agenda. “There's no one there yet. I'd like to give it a try.”
Focusing on YouTube, Palmeli has also taken slightly different tacks from many journalists who recently left the media company through layoffs and shootings, usually in subsacks, from releasing their own content. (She also has a Sacak newsletter.)
YouTube says viewers want a longer form of news analysis, especially through podcasts. Recently, it announced it has over 1 billion podcast listeners each month, surpassing other media platforms. (Watching and listening to podcasts is an increasingly fuzzy distinction.) Palmeli is part of a program to support the “next generation” independent journalists on the platform with training and funding.
However, it has not yet been tested whether “news influencers” like Palmeli can succeed with popular partisan commentators of the same size. Many say they want more unbiased news. Are they really?
Adam Faz, an emerging media guru known for producing Tiktok shows, which is an informal advising Palmeli, said he has not noticed that other political journalists are approaching YouTube.
“It's not her access,” he said. Piers Morgan was a success, Fuzz noted, but his YouTube channel is primarily reminiscent of his cable news day, featuring dissonant crosstalk panels and green screen urban landscape backgrounds.
“I don't want you to go to this YouTube page and think, 'I could have seen it on the cable channel,'' Palmeli said. She aims to “speak like a normal person” rather than a news anchor, and she is “more rough.”
Palmeli takes pride in her grit. She often describes herself as “fearless and fearless.” This is a New Jersey daughter whose parents didn't go to college. Her enthusiasm for the scoop made her a variety of unpopularity among both Democrats and Republicans, and sometimes other journalists.
Before the pack, while working at Politico, Palmeli reported on an investigation into a gun owned by Hunter Biden. In 2021, the White House Deputy Director resigned after telling Palmeli that she was “destroying” her to report on her relationship with the Axios journalist who was covering the president.
The old-fashioned tabloid sensibility drove Palmeli, who smashed several White House gatecrashers for Washington examiners at the door in his 20s, and chasing “cops” in the New York Post Cuba. In her new substance, red letters, she plans to include blind gossip items, Palmeli said.
“She has the cadence that makes you feel like you're just talking to your girlfriend,” which makes you feel like you're talking to your girlfriend, not your journalist,” said Holly Harris, a veteran Republican strategist who encouraged Palmeli to become independent. This temperament can be proven “a little dangerous,” Harris added: In November, at a Washington cocktail party, a former Congressional staff approached the reporter and warned him not to trust Palmeli, who was at the party. (“I love it,” Palmeli later said.
Palmeli struggled to fit when working in more traditional newsrooms, such as ABC News. She spent about two years as a White House correspondent.
“I always felt like there was no place I was in my home,” she said.
After ABC, she hosted a Sony research podcast about the wealthy families of dishonorable investor Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Gislaine Maxwell. She plans to continue making podcasts. Her current show, “Someone's Gotta Win,” is an election collaboration between Puck and Spotify's The Ringer, and is expected to end in April.
The pack she joined in 2022 was more suited to self-directed (and self-promotional) streaks than any other employer. “We're kind of rebels,” Palmeli said, believing Puck helped her find her voice.
“It was the closest place I could write letters directly to the audience, but it was still edited in a style that wasn't me,” she said. The tone was “elite and impressive” than her natural voice. One example she provided was the frequent use of the word “certainly.”
To become independent, she has given up on a base salary of $260,000 in the pack and is funding her new venture with her savings. The dining table in her one-bedroom apartment in Brownstone Brooklyn has become her recording studio.
The initial grant from YouTube led Palmeri to purchase approximately $10,000 worth of equipment, testing and hiring editors. (Both she and YouTube refused to disclose the size of the grant.) In return, she has pledged to release about four videos a week.
Investors are also interested in Palmeli, she said, but she hasn't decided whether or when to take her money. She would prefer to accept “squeaky and clean” funds from both ends of the political spectrum, she said: “This is a business of trust.” She is also considering a new line of credit or small business loan.
“I want to bet on myself,” Palmeli said. “No one is saying, 'This is the headline, this is the angle.' Don't you like it? That's me. No one else is responsible. ”
