''Talking Points Memo'' (''TPM'') is a liberal political news and opinion website created and run by Josh Marshall that debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a reference to the memo (short list) consisting of the issues (points) discussed by one's side in a debate or used to support a position taken on an issue. By 2007, ''TPM'' received an average of 400,000 page views every weekday.

Growth

''Talking Points Memo'' was founded as a political blog in 2000 Josh Marshall, who until 2004 was the site's sole employee. In 2005, TPM Media LLC was incorporated, and the company began to grow with more employees and spinoff websites. By 2009 it had 11 employees, and, having previously been funded by ads and reader donations, received

angel investment An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownersh ...

s from a group led by

Marc Andreessen Marc Lowell Andreessen ( ; born July 9, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silico ...

. In 2009, ''TPM'' opened a Washington, D.C. office and joined the White House press pool along with several other progressive news outlets to cover the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

. The site introduced a subscription service, TPM Prime, in 2012, which by 2017 had over 21,000 subscribers.

Reception

Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols describe the site as taking a "more raucous and sensational" tone than traditional news media. This includes coining phrases such as "Bamboozlepalooza" to describe George W. Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security, which the blog opposed. McChesney and Nichols compare this to the

muckraking The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...

. The more social aspects of the site, which invite

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

, were compared to '' La Follette's Weekly''. Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, in 2009 said "''TPM'' is really an advocacy operation that has moved toward journalism." Guest bloggers have included Matthew Yglesias, Robert Reich, Dean Baker, Michael Crowley, and, briefly, vice-presidential candidate

John Edwards Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...

. Beginning in the summer of 2006, many weekend postings were provided by

anonymous blogger Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

''DK''. On November 11, 2006, ''DK'' was revealed to be attorney David Kurtz, who now posts openly under his name. In 2007, ''TPM'' won a

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

for Legal Reporting for its coverage of the 2006 U.S. Attorneys scandal, becoming the first online-only outlet to receive the award.

Related projects

TPMCafe TPMCafe was a center- left blog portal created by Josh Marshall as a spin-off blog to his popular '' Talking Points Memo''. It debuted on May 31, 2005. TPM Cafe featured a collection of blogs about a wide range of domestic and foreign policy is ...

- a "spin-off" blog also created by Josh Marshall, is a companion website that debuted on May 31, 2005. This site features a collection of blogs about a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues written by academics, journalists, and former public officials, among others. * TPMmuckraker - a new blog that was founded when Marshall expanded his operation where journalists working for the TPM collective, such as Paul Kiel and Justin Rood, investigate political corruption. * TPMDC - founded in January 2007, the ''Horse's Mouth'', is a blog authored by Greg Sargent with a remit to cover how Washington politics was covered by the major news outlets, that moved home from

The American Prospect ''The American Prospect'' is a daily online and bimonthly print American political and public policy magazine dedicated to American modern liberalism and progressivism. Based in Washington, D.C., ''The American Prospect'' says it "is devoted t ...

to the TPM Media family. Sargent had begun writing for TPMCafe in July 2006. In 2008, Sargent stopped posting to the ''Horse's Mouth'' blog and began posting to a new blog called TPM Election Central, which focused on covering the 2008 elections. In 2009, TPM Election Central was renamed TPMDC, to cover politics from Washington, D.C., and Marshall hired journalists based in Washington to report for the blog. * TPMLiveWire - is a spin-off established in September 2009. * TPMIdea Lab - is a blog established in January 2011 to cover science and technology. * TPMPollTracker - is an aggregator of various polls about incumbents taken by polling agencies. * TPMPrime - is a paid members-only section offering long form articles, and interactive discussions with journalists and political figures. The four blogs (Talking Points Memo, TPMCafe, TPMMuckraker, and TPMDC) are published by TPM Media LLC.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://talkingpointsmemo.com American political blogs Online magazines published in the United States Internet properties established in 2000 Opinion polling in the United States Liberalism in the United States