Straight Arrow News

Last updated
Straight Arrow News
Straight Arrow News.png
SAN website.png
Home page of Straight Arrow News (September 28, 2025)
Type of business Media company
Type of site
News website
Founded2021
Headquarters,
Area servedWordwide
Founder(s) Joe Ricketts
Managing director Derek Mead
Revenue Increase2.svg$9.9 million (yearly) [1]
Employees71 [1]
URL san.com
Users 1,800,000+
Current statusActive

Straight Arrow News (SAN) is a media company and news website founded by billionaire and businessman John Ricketts in 2021. [2] SAN is based in Nebraska, United States and currently has 70 employees, [3] it styles itself as a completely unbiased source of information that reports "straight facts". [2] SAN claimed that it was the first media company in the country to receive the "Certified Balanced" reward from AllSides for its "unbiased" reporting. [4]

Contents

History

Background

In January 2021, press secretary of Joe Ricketts, American billionaire and CEO of TD Ameritrade living in Nebraska, announced the upcoming launch of a news outlet that he claimed would aim to report news "without opinion or bias". The first reports of the outlet's launch appeared in the Omaha World Herald , where Ricketts was noted as a sponsor of various conservative organizations. The press secretary later revealed the name of the outlet, "Straight Arrow News", and said its launch was expected before the end of 2021. He said Ricketts chose this name for the outlet to emphasize its reliability that he compared to a "straight arrow that hits the bullseye". [5] SAN was reportedly first registered in 2020 in Delaware. Responding to questions of the press, Ricketts did not specify how many people would work there, but stated that he intends to hire editors outside of Omaha, the city where SAN was founded. He also said his family members would not work for SAN. [6] [7]

In the weeks before the announcent of SAN's launch, the outlet posted job applications for news reporter, video editor and motion graphics designer. SAN was estimated to launch in February 2021. [8] Reportedly, Ricketts was motivated to create SAN after having a societal conversation with his liberal friend where they discussed why polite and fact-based discussions between people had become uncommon. [9] Ricketts was a CEO of other news websites, like DNAInfo, founded by him in 2009, and Gothamist, which was sold to Ricketts. He shut both websites down in November 2017 after their staff began forming labour unions. [7] [10]

Company

The official launch of SAN took place sometime in June 2021. [11] In 2022, SAN started the construction of its newsroom and bought several communication devices for content production. [12] [13] It was revealed that SAN started producing pre-recorded news segments in the studio, with SAN's anchors doing morning news updates. Clear-Com said SAN planned to expand its business to social media platforms, like Facebook Live, and film real-time broadcasts. [14]

On September 14, 2023, press release of SAN said that AllSides, media-bias rating service, had awarded the outlet with "Certified Balanced status" for their impartiality in reporting. It further claimed that AllSides staff have rated SAN's political position as centrist and that they became the first news outlet in the country to receive such award. [4] At the end of April 2024, SAN released an updated version of its app for download. In 2025, SAN reported that the app had become more popular with user traffic in June 2025 increasing by 1,170% compared to June 2024. [2] On November 1, 2024, SAN said it had hired Ken Shapiro as its Chief Revenue Officer. Shapiro was a former Morning Brew editor and Fandom employee. SAN also said it received 100/100 score by NewsGuard , media-bias rating system. [15] In April 2025, SAN choose Derek Mead, former editor of ViceMagazine, for the position of Chief Content Officer. Joe Ricketts praised Mead, calling the man a "proven leader in the media space". [16]

In May 2025, Ken Shapiro said in an interview that SAN plans to increase its popularity 10 times by launching advertising campaigns using Google Ads and SEO starting in October 2025 and become self-sustaining company by 2027. [17] On June 4, 2025, website and app of SAN were relaunched again and received new features for better user experience. [18] On July 8, 2025, AllSides announced that they had awarded SAN with "Certified Balanced status" again. It said SAN is "free" from biased reporting and that both right and left leaning users rated SAN as "centrist" in surveys. [19] SAN, speaking through WHTM-TV , said the surveys consisted of Republicans, Democrats and independents spread throughout the US. [20]

Content, website and audience

In a November 2022 press release, SAN described itself as an "emerging" news outlet whose "mission" is to provide impartial coverage of news in the United States. SAN stated that it strives to unite the US and accept both sides of the political spectrum in its news reporting, which it says is written with "nuance and empathy". Maelyn Wisch, SAN's marketing director, said SAN promises to report "unbiased straight facts", she also said SAN has "high standards" in reporting. [21] In 2025, it was reported that SAN has grown in popularity by 2.5x due to focusing on covering underreported stories. Editorial team of SAN has 70 people and based in Nebraska, the company earns money by advertising, paid subscriptions to its website and sponsorships. Audience of SAN were reported to be men and women aged 30 to 55 living across the US. [3] SAN owns a newsroom in Omaha that can fit 35 people and is considered to be self-funded company. [9]

Website of SAN has multiple features, like a special tool named "Media Miss", the outlet uses it to determine how many left-wing and right-wing sources reported on a specific story. Another feature of the website is the division of news articles into multiple sections: the first section presents the content, second explains "why the story matters", third section summarizes the article and the fourth lists sources used to make the article. [3] The website was visited 1,800,000+ times since January 2024 per Similarweb. Reportedly, 42% of the website's visits were normal, 0.07% were paid and 6% were made from referrals. The site's traffic grew 6 times from October 2025 to February 2025. [17] The website, along with the app, were relaunched on June 4, 2025. SAN redesigned the website and added new features like the aforementioned division of article into sections with summaries. [18] [22]

SAN also previously relaunched its app in late April 2024 and stated in an interview with Press Gazette that the app's traffic had grown by 50% since then. Ken Shapiro reported that since June 2025, the number of app views has grown by 1,170%, and the number of active users has grown by 700% compared to June 2024. [2]

Activities

In November 2022, SAN announced that it had partnered with Ground News to obtain the "Media Miss" tool. [21] On September 25, 2021, it was reported that Joe Ricktetts supported First Responders Foundation and organized a rally together with SAN in Omaha where people celebrated the work of emergency services. [23] SAN had partnered itself in 2025 with Jubilee Media to fact-check participants of its shows, [24] SAN appeared in multiple debate episodes filmed by Julibee where it was seen giving on-screen fact-checks. [25]

In September 2025, SAN conducted an analysis of an app named "Cancel the Hate", founded by politician Jason Sheppard, after receiving a tip from cybersecurity researcher. [26] The purpose of the app was to "report" individuals celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk. SAN claimed the app leaked personal data of users who submitted reports, making them vulnerable to hacking. After SAN reached out to the website, it was taken down hours after. [27]

References

  1. 1 2 "Straight Arrow News: Revenue, Competitors, Alternatives". GrowJo. Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Brooker, Alice (July 31, 2025). "'Unbiased' US news publisher believes app is key in world of AI search summaries". Press Gazette .
  3. 1 2 3 Kunova, Marcela (July 14, 2025). "How Straight Arrow News turned radical transparency into rapid audience growth". journalism.co.uk . Archived from the original on August 11, 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Straight Arrow News Gains Additional Unbiased News Award". KTLA . September 14, 2023.
  5. Coster, Helen (January 19, 2021). "Billionaire businessman Joe Ricketts launching news outlet". Reuters .
  6. Budryk, Zack (January 19, 2021). "Joe Ricketts to launch news outlet from Nebraska". The Hill . Archived from the original on March 3, 2025.
  7. 1 2 "Conservative Joe Ricketts, Cubs family patriarch who closed DNAinfo after union vote, to launch Omaha-based 'unbiased' news site". Chicago Tribune . January 18, 2021 via Yahoo Sports.
  8. Hammel, Paul (January 17, 2021). "Joe Ricketts is launching a national news outlet based in Omaha". Omaha World-Herald .
  9. 1 2 Walters, Jez (June 30, 2025). "Can Publishers Reclaim Trust? Lessons from Straight Arrow News". WNIP.
  10. "MEDIA: Billionaire Ricketts plans news outlet". The Washington Post . January 19, 2021. ISSN   0190-8286.
  11. Keys, Matthew (June 10, 2021). ""Straight Arrow News" wants to shake up the news industry with facts-first reporting". The Desk.
  12. "Quicklink Studio powers Straight Arrow News' remote contributor production". NewscastStudio. March 24, 2022.
  13. "Straight Arrow News Gets Straight to the Point with Assistance from Clear-Com's IP Solutions". Clear-Com . March 2, 2022.
  14. Winslow, George (March 2, 2022). "Straight Arrow News Launches With Clear-Com IP Solutions". TV Tech .
  15. "Straight Arrow News Adds Ken Shapiro as Chief Revenue Officer". Business Wire . November 1, 2024 via Yahoo Finance.
  16. Schultz, Ray (April 21, 2025). "Straight Arrow News Hires Derek Mead As Chief Content Officer". MediaPost.
  17. 1 2 Sciaudone, Christiana (May 10, 2025). "Billionaire Publisher Thinks There is a Business From Shooting Straight in Tribal Times" . A Media Operator.
  18. 1 2 "Straight Arrow News launches redesigned platform for modern news consumption". Editor & Publisher . June 4, 2025.
  19. "Straight Arrow News Achieves AllSides Balance Certification for Third Year in a Row". AllSides . July 8, 2025.
  20. "Straight Arrow News Achieves AllSides' 'Center' Rating and Balance Certification Award for Third Consecutive Year". WHTM-TV . July 22, 2025.
  21. 1 2 "Straight arrow news provides unbiased election coverage during time of media mistrust". PR Newswire . November 1, 2022.
  22. Schultz, Ray (June 4, 2025). "Straight Arrow News Upgrades Its Website". MediaPost.
  23. Monnier, Patrice (September 6, 2023). "Joe Ricketts Supports First Responders Foundation". FRF.
  24. Tisch-Bostock, Lili; To, Julie (May 7, 2025). "Jubilee Media: Turning Hate into Clickbait". Gamamari .
  25. Guzman, Chad (July 22, 2025). "'Memeification of Politics': What to Know About Jubilee Media's Viral Debate Show Surrounded". Time Magazine . Archived from the original on July 30, 2025.
  26. Hollingworth, David (September 23, 2025). "Cancel the Hate cancels itself after alleged leak of user data". CyberDaily.
  27. Biswas, Shreya (September 24, 2025). "App targeting Charlie Kirk critics leaks user data in huge privacy breach". The Economic Times . ISSN   0013-0389.