The Bulwark Built a Profitable $20 Million Business by Breaking the Old Media Rules

What began as a Never Trump passion project has become a fast-growing media company with more than 140,000 paid subscribers.

From a cramped room in an uptown New Orleans neighborhood, stuffed with a fancy video lighting setup and decorated with a plant and a pinto bean poster, Tim Miller has become arguably the most familiar public face of an unlikely sounding media business success story. The Bulwark Daily podcast, which the former political operative hosts from his home far from the D.C.-New York political-media epicenter, features guests like journalist Maggie Haberman, pundit Piers Morgan, and former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, along with Miller’s own at-times performative brand of partisan commentary. One memorable example: Unable to air a clip of Vice President JD Vance being booed at the Olympics, Miller recreated the moment himself. (“Boooo! You suck!” etc.) 

Miller’s show ranks consistently in the top 10 news podcasts, putting its anti-MAGA (but avowedly centrist) agenda in the company of Megyn Kelly’s, Candace Owens’s, and Tucker Carlson’s Trump-friendlier offerings; the video version anchors a YouTube channel with more than 1.7 million followers.

The Bulwark, a media company founded in 2018 by apostate Republicans as a Never Trump redoubt, is much more than Miller’s show these days, with more than 50 employees publishing 10 newsletters and nine podcasts, mostly free but some available only with a subscription (annual price: $100). The subject matter ranges from national security to business to entertainment. Live events have been added to the mix, with shows that basically consist of Bulwark personalities chatting and arguing about the news, selling out in major cities, and sometimes requiring second nights.

This bundle gives subscribers multiple reasons to stay, and it lets the Bulwark capture different audiences. A subscriber who came into the Bulwarkverse via Miller’s podcast might discover Lauren Egan’s Democratic politics newsletter. A reader of Will Sommer’s entertaining coverage of MAGA conspiracy culture may find their way to Sarah Longwell’s more nitty-gritty (and, for Trump opponents, depressing) Focus Group podcast. All will be teased with subscriber-only extras for those who can’t get enough. Editor Jonathan V. Last’s Triad newsletter — five days a week and often 2,000 words a shot — has turned out to be a major converter of paid subscribers.

“I think that one of our projects has been to rebuild the bundle,” says Last, referring to the unbundling of news organizations and rise of individual star writers and creators who use platforms like Substack to go solo. (A recent redesign of its site emphasizes a more cohesive, magazine-like feel.) “I think we are much more than the sum of our parts. We bring together a bigger audience, build a bigger community because we’re all together than any of us would on our own. And I think there’s a lot of value in that for the people who read us and listen to us and talk with us and a lot of value for us as people who are on a mission and not just trying to make money.”

But the telegenic, 44-year-old Miller, who sometimes sports a single strand of Mardi Gras beads, has become a kind of face for the brand as it has made its surprising rise from a modest nonprofit to a growing and profitable business with annual revenue topping $20 million last year — and on track to reach about $30 million this year. It recently passed one million total Substack subscribers and more than 140,000 paid. It has more than 1.7 million followers on YouTube, where Miller’s podcast has had 71 million views in the past year. 

Most of the growth has happened in the past two years or so, and for a variety of reasons, from being opportunistic about branching out into new media to staying conservative and deliberate in their growth strategy. But one that Miller likes to emphasize is the authentic voice. “People ask, ‘What is authenticity........

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