BY KEVIN N. CIRILLI
Substack | LinkedIn | Instagram | X: @kevcirilli
GABE FLEISHER started his first newsletter at age 9.
Flash forward more than a decade later and the 22-year-old’s Wake Up To Politics Substack is giving Mike Allen Playbook-era vibes. And his work is being read by some very prominent politicos inside the Beltway.
In an era of fragmented media, no political journalists in 2024 are becoming the breakout stars of yester-cycle. Fleisher’s political Substack has emerged as the outlier success story of 2024 — but his work is more than a decade in the making. (Again, he started at 9.)
“Gabe Fleisher is proof that journalism has a future and it’s bright,” says Catherine Valentine, head of politics for Substack. Valentine — a behind-the-scenes CNN and WaPo alum — heavily recruited Fleisher to the platform. “Gabe was my first call when I joined Substack in September,” said Valentine, who has emerged as the preeminent D.C. millennial media executive.
But what makes Fleisher a meet the future star is the way he’s merged old with new — new media with good ol’ fashioned shoe leather reporting. Fleisher was heavily recruited by the biggest legacy brands who wanted a piece of his loyal following. At 22-years-old, Fleisher’s decision to choose Substack illustrates how a new generation of journalists are craving a space whether they can break news without the chaos of media executives’ outdated ways of thinking. These same executives spent the last decade losing the trust of the American public while burning through shareholders’ cash — and they still don’t have any solutions to stop the bleeding or ways to create jobs.
Here’s Fleisher’s take on the Substack election:
mtf: In our corners of the internet, 2024 is the Substack election. Do the old guard media executives understand the seismic shift that’s occurring?
Gabe: I think many do not. When I was deciding where to go next with my career, I met with a lot of people at a range of media outlets. A lot of old-guard people couldn’t understand why I was even considering Substack, since they were doubtful it was possible to make a living there. The reality, of course, is many of those same outlets are going through repeated rounds of layoffs and struggling to find revenue models that work, while Substack has clearly found one. It’s no longer the case that a career in mainstream media is necessarily more stable than a career as an independent journalist.
mtf: Trump or Biden?
GF: I truly think it’s 50-50.
mtf: No, really — Trump or Biden?
GF: Ok, fine. I do think it’s 50-50 today. In terms of who will gain and who will slide in the next six months, I think Biden has a slight edge, since it’s likely to be a low-turnout election. His voters are more engaged. Many of the voters up for grabs are from constituencies who supported him in 2020 [and are] easier to convince them to stay in the fold than join a new one, and, well, he’s not the candidate with a criminal conviction. That will sink in more and more as the months go on. That said, all it would take is one fall on the debate stage or a worsening economy, and all that goes out the window.
mtf: What do media executives not understand about Gen-Z news consumers?
GF: When I talk to other young people about their news consumption, two things stick out: they’re looking for authenticity — they want to have a personal connection with the person delivering their news to them — and they’re really not sold on the idea that they have to pay for quality journalism, when the news is easily available on social media. I think some news outlets would be well-served by experimenting with products that drop the rigid formalities and talk to Gen Z consumers more personally and conversationally, without the “voice of God” approach. This is a generation that flocks to products sold by influencers: once you build those personal connections, they’ll be more likely to want to pay.
mtf: Finish this sentence: In 250 years, America…
GF: …will have a substantially different system of government. I think we take for granted how new many facets of our political system are fairly new (presidential debates - 60 years old, government shutdowns - 40 years old, etc.), because we’ve completely lost the muscle memory of changing it. In the next few decades, the Senate filibuster will likely be eliminated, and that is going to unleash new states, different rules for elections, and dramatic changes to all three branches of government. The American system of government has always adapted itself in each new era — something we forget because the status quo has become so hardened in the last few decades. Eventually, those changes will start to re-assert themselves, in some pretty fundamental ways.
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About Kevin:
Kevin N. Cirilli is based in Washington D.C Among his other duties, he is a media fellow at the Atlantic Council and previously worked at Bloomberg News. At Bloomberg News, Kevin was chief Washington correspondent and anchored a daily, geopolitical affairs program. His work has appeared on CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Yahoo Finance, SiriusXM, Scripps News, POLITICO, The Hill, as well as other media brands.
With more than a decade experience in Washington, Kevin has been part of teams that have launched successful news verticals, shows, and newsletters for some of world’s leading media brands.
Kevin is <now> launching mtf.tv’s meet the future NOW — a weekly newsletter covering the intersection of high-tech, markets, digital currencies, geopolitics, space, and more. The first season of the video podcast version of the newsletter development. Follow him on social media: Substack | LinkedIn | Instagram | X: @kevcirilli.
