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The New York paper said Nuzzi’s actions “violated our standards on conflicts of interest and disclosure” and apologized for “betraying the trust of our readers.” Nuzzi subsequently apologized for not disclosing their “personal” relationship earlier.Neither Nuzzi nor New York specifically named RFK Jr., but neither disputed him. Reports They state clearly that it is He they are talking about.
This news is also big news for the journalists who covered it. Oliver Darcy, a former CNN media reporter who left the news channel in August And launch situationhis own one-man newsletter company. Since then, Darcy has broken a string of high-profile scoops, none of which have come close to matching the impact this one has had on the media world.
(Please note, there are multiple disclosures: Darcy previously worked at Business Insider. I worked at Vox Media, which owns New York Magazine, from 2015 to 2023. Vox Media currently produces and distributes my weekly magazine. channel Podcast.
I asked Darcy about the significance of this story and the latest updates on her newsletter venture, which is not even a month old. Below are edited excerpts from our conversation.
Explain to the average person who doesn’t spend much time thinking about media why this is a story.
This is a journalism story because there is a conflict of interest. Olivia is one of the most well-known journalists in America and it is no exaggeration to say that she wrote one of the most influential articles of the 2024 election campaign. The conspiracy of silence to protect Joe BidenAnd given that readers were not aware of this ongoing relationship with RFK, since RFK was actively involved in the 2024 campaign, it raises questions about a conflict of interest.
So this is what happened. Not because she was in a relationship with anybody, but because it raised a thorny issue for the magazine and for her in terms of, “Was her coverage influenced by this relationship?” She says it wasn’t, and maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it wasn’t at all. But at least at the very least, there is a perception issue here. So this is important.
Her influence in American politics is immense: for example, she has interviewed Donald Trump multiple times. Includes articles published earlier this monthShe is probably one of the most famous magazine writers in the country.
Did you have any hesitation about pursuing this case and going public about it? Was there ever a point where you thought, “This is important, and this is important for journalism, but it’s also people’s private lives. Maybe this doesn’t need to be in the story”?
I agonized over it because I approach stories as a human being, or at least I try to, and I know this is going to have a lot of consequences. I know Olivia, I know her, and I made this clear in the story. I’ve been friends with her for years.
So, for these reasons, it wasn’t easy to publish this story. But this is a story, and I believe these things are important here. This is my work, too.
Any big story that I’ve ever done has always weighed pretty heavily on my conscience. It’s still hard to publish a story that’s going to have a big impact on someone, even if you don’t have a lot of sympathy for the people involved, and it’s not something I take lightly.
After you published your article and New York released their statement, Nuzzi released her own statement that may change how people interpret the article. She said that they were not physical, but that there was communication. Were you aware that this was what she was saying in her article before it was published?
We knew there was an inappropriate relationship between the two and printed everything we could at the time.
If it turns out she didn’t have a physical relationship, or had something else, would that change the importance of the story and what would happen?
I don’t think so. I really don’t think so. I think, as she said, this should have been made public. And New York magazine reported: I think they’re taking this very seriously. She would not have been allowed to continue covering the presidential election because of this. So I think this is still a very serious issue.
This is also the biggest story you’ve published since you launched, right?
This is definitely the biggest news we’ve had since we launched.
How about new business?
It’s been really well received. The response has been amazing. A lot of people have subscribed immediately. But scoops are also what drive readership, so we’ve been trying to feature some of those.
How many readers do you have? How many subscribers do you have?
I don’t want to reveal that at this point, but I’m happy with it.
How is life different doing it mostly on your own at CNN versus doing it 100% on your own?
It’s the same work that I did at CNN, so it’s pretty much the same, but you lose some of the infrastructure and you lose a little bit of the support structure, and it makes it a little bit harder, especially when you’re covering complex stories like we’re talking about, because you’re not part of a giant organization on your own.
We’re talking about the media business, and I was surprised that you made this a subscription product. Obviously, media has made a big shift over the last few years toward subscriptions. But what you were doing before that was free. There’s a lot of free media journalism out there. Why did you decide to make this a paid product?
I have to run a business, and I believe people should pay for journalism that they think is good.
I wish there was a way to provide quality journalism for free. Despite efforts by outlets like CNN to offer subscription services, the reality is that journalism is so expensive that the only realistic way to provide it is to charge for it.
In my case, I have to pay for access to Getty Images. I have to pay for legal insurance. I have to pay for infrastructure for my website. I have to pay all these fees before I even pay my rent. So these are expensive. If you want to support quality journalism, you should pay the fees.
And that’s really how I let my readers know that this is a 100% independent product – they’re supporting my independent opinions, and if they want that, they have to pay a subscription.
So putting all this together, do you think last night’s scoop led to more subscribers? Do you think last night’s real-time subscribers increased?
Absolutely. You can see people signing up in real time.