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The news of the venture was first reported by
the Omaha World-Herald https://omaha.com/business/local/joe-ricketts-is-launching-a-national-news-outlet-based-in-omaha/article_117fe584-55e5-11eb-9f6b-9349abea2fd7.html,
which describes Joe Ricketts as a leading funder of national
conservative causes. The Center for Responsive Politics has
listed him as a Republican megadonor.
The news outlet, called Straight Arrow News, will be based in
Omaha, Nebraska, and is expected to launch this year, according
to the spokesperson.
“The name speaks to the company’s mission of being a trustworthy
source of news and information – a straight arrow that hits the
bullseye,” Joe Ricketts said through a spokesperson.
News of the launch comes as President Donald Trump has lost
access to key media platforms, prompting speculation that he
could launch his own media company or strike a deal or
partnership with an existing player. Trump has been without a
media platform since Twitter, Facebook and other tech companies
banned him following the Jan. 6 pro-Trump riots at the U.S.
Capitol.
The outgoing president has been critical of Rupert Murdoch's Fox
Corp -owned Fox News cable channel and has promoted the two
cable outlets to the right of Fox - Newsmax and One America News
Network (OAN) - helping them grow.
Investment firm Hicks Equity Partners had plans to pitch Todd
Ricketts, Joe Ricketts’ son and the Republican National
Committee finance chairman, to join its venture to acquire OAN
from its current owners, according to a Wall Street Journal
January 2020 report that cited a person familiar with the
matter.
The elder Ricketts has previous experience in media. He was the
founder and chief executive officer of DNAinfo, a news website
focused on local news in New York City and Chicago. He
eventually shut down the venture when employees voted to form a
union.
In an earlier blog post, Joe Ricketts had written that: “It is
my observation that unions exert efforts that tend to destroy
the Free Enterprise system.”
In an Oct. 23, 2020 post Joe Ricketts congratulated his son Todd
after The New Yorker magazine profiled him and his work for
Trump. "Todd joins other conservative leaders who The New Yorker
has attacked because they promote different values than the
magazine or support political candidates the magazine doesn’t
like,” Ricketts wrote.
(Reporting by Helen Coster; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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