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A number of media outlets and media-outlet-adjacent entities based around Washington managed to obtain loans of $150,000 or more under the Paycheck Protection Program, according to data released by the Department of the Treasury. The loans are forgivable under certain circumstances.
Arlington-based Axios famously returned its loan after taking criticism that it couldn’t report on the Trump administration while taking money from the federal government, an argument that frames government funds as favors to be handed out by the administration as opposed to money appropriated by Congress in the name of job-protection and open to friends and foes of the administration alike. (By the same token, enjoying access to national parks like, for instance, the White House, is also an example of availing yourself of tax-funded benefits.)
Loans of less than $150,000 are anonymized in Treasury data (Local News Now, which publishes ARLnow and other publications, says it got one for less than $100,000) and information about loans above that amount is contained in a massive spreadsheet that can be a task to read through. Here’s a list of what Washingtonian (which, as you’ll see below, got one of the loans) found in the data.
| Name | Notes | Range of loan | Jobs retained | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Beacon Newspapers, Inc. | $150,000-$350,000 | 13 | MD | |
| Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia | Publisher of the Washington Blade | $150,000-$350,000 | 0 * | DC |
| Capital Community News | Publisher of Hillrag and other titles | $150,000-$350,000 | 8 | DC |
| The Center for Public Integrity | $350,000-$1 million | 30 | DC | |
| The Daily Caller | $350,000-$1 million | 42 | DC | |
| The Daily Caller News Foundation | $150,000-$350,000 | 30 | DC | |
| FedScoop LLC | $350,000-$1 million | 38 | DC | |
| FiscalNote Holdings | Publisher of CQ Roll Call | $5 million-$10 million | 40 | DC |
| Kohanza Media Ventures LLC | Publisher of Bethesda Magazine and Arlington Magazine | $150,000-$350,000 | 18 | MD |
| MDE City Paper Holdings, LLC | Publisher of Washington City Paper | $150,000-$350,000 | 30 | DC |
| Media Matters for America | $1 million-$2 million | 64 | DC | |
| Media Research Center | Publisher of Newsbusters, CNSNews and other entities | $1 million-$2 million | 61 | VA |
| Metro Media Marketing, Inc. | Publisher of Northern Virginia Magazine | $150,000-$350,000 | 0 * | VA |
| Mid-Atlantic Media, LLC | Publisher of Washington Jewish Week, Montgomery Magazine, and other titles | $350,000-$1 million | 54 | MD |
| Online News Association | $150,000-$350,000 | 11 | DC | |
| Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting | $150,000-$350,000 | 21 | DC | |
| Towson University Public Media, Inc. | Operates WTMD | $150,000-$350,000 | 23 | MD |
| Washingtonian Media, Inc. | $350,000-$1 million | 69 | DC | |
| The Washington Times | $1 million-$2 million | 91 | DC |
* Unclear if this is accurate; one organization has already told me it’s a mistake in their case.
Huge hat tips to Jason Shevrin, who tweeted some of these findings, and Chelsea Cirruzzo, who transferred the DC data into a Google spreadsheet. Please send me any outlets I missed: abeaujon@washingtonian.com.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
