Program Built to Help Independent Journalists Grow Their Own Media Businesses Now Reaches 1M+ Active Subscribers, Generates $5M+ in Member Revenue
NEW YORK, Sept. 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — beehiiv, the all-in-one publishing platform for creators, publishers and brands to build, grow and monetize their audiences, today announced the latest expansion of the beehiiv Media Collective, adding multiple Emmy Award-winning journalist and longtime CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg; former IndieWire Editor-In-Chief Dana Harris-Bridson; and veteran tech and politics reporter David Covucci. The three are building new independent media businesses spanning entertainment, travel and investigative journalism.
Launched in 2024, the beehiiv Media Collective gives leading journalists the platform, resources and support to build independent media businesses on their own terms. The program provides support across legal, healthcare, technology, audience growth, monetization and other operational responsibilities, while allowing journalists to retain control of their work, audience, and business.
“We started the Media Collective to solve a problem I kept hearing from journalists: they wanted to bet on themselves, but going independent meant losing the support system they had spent their careers relying on,” said Tyler Denk, co-founder and CEO of beehiiv. “The Media Collective gives them the scaffolding to build something of their own while staying focused on what they do best: reporting. It’s grown faster and been more successful than we anticipated.”
The Media Collective has grown to more than 30 journalists and now reaches more than 1 million active subscribers, with members generating more than $5 million in revenue and sending more than 112 million emails to date. Like every creator and publisher building on beehiiv, Media Collective members keep 100% of the revenue they earn, with beehiiv charging 0% platform fees.
Peter Greenberg, the Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and CBS News travel editor, will launch The Upgrade on September 15, bringing his investigative approach to the process and business of travel. Greenberg will report on what travelers need to know before they go, from airline and hotel practices to cruise ship safety, loyalty programs, travel disruptions and the oversight of aircraft maintenance and airworthiness. Greenberg also hosts and produces three long-running television programs, The Royal Tour, Hidden, and The Travel Detective, which air across PBS, Amazon, Apple TV and YouTube.
“Travel journalism should tell you what the airlines, hotels and cruise lines won’t,” said Greenberg. “With The Upgrade, I want to pull back the curtain on how travel actually works, what travelers need to know and just as importantly, what they need to avoid.”
Dana Harris-Bridson, who spent three decades covering the business of entertainment and most recently served as SVP and editor-in-chief of IndieWire, will launch Flamingo Media in January 2027. Flamingo will cover what Harris-Bridson calls the “Story Economy,” the increasingly interconnected market spanning entertainment, creators, brands, platforms, technology and capital. Through reporting, intelligence and community, Flamingo will cover those sectors not as separate industries, but as parts of a single evolving market.
“Everyone in this business can feel the ground moving, but the vocabulary hasn’t caught up,” said Harris-Bridson. “I started calling it the Story Economy because I kept seeing multiple industries converging on story as a primary asset. Flamingo exists to cover it as one market.”
David Covucci, a former editor with The Daily Dot and Uproxx Media, recently started FOIAball, the independent investigative publication based on a simple premise: the government reports to the public. What began as an effort to use public-records laws to uncover stories inside college football has expanded into reporting on the powerful institutions and forces surrounding college sports, including political influence, surveillance technology, labor rights and wealthy donors.
“Going independent is the best thing I ever did. It’s also been the hardest move of my career,” said Covucci. “The Media Collective has made that leap so much less daunting. The legal and financial support matters, but so does having people to call, compare notes with and learn from. As a solo journalist, knowing you’re not actually going it alone is invaluable.”
Across the Media Collective, journalists are already showing what’s possible when they build businesses of their own. Covucci, Greenberg, and Harris-Bridson join a growing roster that includes longtime Wall Street Journal technology columnist Joanna Stern with New Things; CBS News contributor David Begnaud with Do Good Crew; former Vanity Fair chief critic Richard Lawson with Premiere Party; and Scalable and L.A. Material. Oliver Darcy has grown Status into a seven-figure media business and won the 2026 Mirror Award for Best Media Newsletter. The Nerve, founded by former Guardian and Observer journalists, attracted nearly 1,000 paying subscribers within its first week. Dave Jorgenson and Local News International won a 2026 Webby Award. Within a year of launching Breaker Media, Lachlan Cartwright announced his media company was profitable and he was earning on par with his salary in legacy media.
Click here to learn more about the Media Collective and explore the full list of members.
About beehiiv
beehiiv is the platform creators and brands use to build, grow and monetize their audiences, while keeping full ownership of those relationships and 100% of their subscription revenue. What began as a newsletter platform has evolved into an all-in-one platform for building content-led businesses, bringing together newsletter publishing, native podcast and community hosting, websites, digital products, advertising, analytics and audience growth tools. beehiiv’s mission is to help the next million creators and brands build direct relationships with their audience and turn those relationships into sustainable revenue. Learn more at beehiiv.com.
Press Contact: Lance Frank [email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/546dd0cc-37d0-440c-a540-5b6faad375d2
