''Heat Street'' was a news, opinion and commentary website based in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. The website was launched in April 2016 by U.S.-based British writer and former politician
Louise Mensch
Louise Daphne Mensch ('' née'' Bagshawe; born 28 June 1971) is a British blogger, novelist, and former Conservative Member of Parliament. In the 1990s she became known as a writer of chick lit novels under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe. She ...
.
It was owned by
News Corp under
Dow Jones & Company and featured sections on politics, technology, culture, business, entertainment, and life. News Corporation announced that the site would shut down on August 4, 2017, to become part of
MarketWatch.
[Rupert Murdoch is closing 'punky libertarian' website Heat Street after little more than a year]
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...
, 30 June 2017
The website has been described as
center-right and
libertarian.
Organization overview
Founding
Mensch had first been exploring the idea of creating a blog under
News Corp for about three years before it was pitched to
Dow Jones CEO Will Lewis as a "libertarian ''
Huffington Post''". News Corp CEO Robert Thompson signed off on the project in late 2015.
The website was announced in February 2016. It launched officially on April 20, 2016,
headed by British journalist
Louise Mensch
Louise Daphne Mensch ('' née'' Bagshawe; born 28 June 1971) is a British blogger, novelist, and former Conservative Member of Parliament. In the 1990s she became known as a writer of chick lit novels under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe. She ...
and television executive Noah Kotch.
Miles Goslett
Miles Goslett is a journalist. He has worked for the ''Evening Standard'', the ''Sunday Telegraph'' and the ''Mail on Sunday''. He was the U.K. editor for Heat Street.
Career
Goslett has won the 'Scoop of the Year' award four times: once at t ...
was hired as the site's UK editor in January 2016, prior to the site's launch.
By ''Heat Streets seventh month of publication, it reported 8 million unique users to the site.
Mensch left ''Heat Street'' in mid-December 2016 and launched her own political blog, ''
Patribotics
''Patribotics'' is the blog of British-American blogger, novelist and ex-politician Louise Mensch. The blog was launched in January 2017. In addition to hosting articles by Mensch, the site has occasionally hosted articles by Laurelai Bailey, and ...
'', in January 2017, stating that she prefers the free hand self-publishing provides.
Content
The site, which was housed under News Corp.'s
Dow Jones & Company, used a more informal tone than other sites run by the company, such as the ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
''.
''
The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughou ...
'' Jennifer Harper described the site as follows: "The politics here are
right-leaning and
libertarian-minded; the publication also covers culture wars, commentary, technology, celebrity, business and assorted lifestyle matters."
In 2016, Mensch said ''Heat Street'' was defined less by politics than by "culture wars". The site has run articles sympathetic to
Gamergate
Gamergate may refer to:
* Gamergate (ant), a worker ant that can store sperm and reproduce sexually
* Gamergate (harassment campaign), targeting women in the video game industry
* Lt. Gamergate, a character in the ''Adventure Time'' episode " Den ...
. Speaking to ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'', Mensch said the gaming community has been "maligned".
In December 2016, Mensch and the James Madison Project filed suit against five intelligence and law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice's
National Security Division and the
Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
over withheld documents detailing evidence of
Russian interference in the presidential election.
References
External links
*
{{News Corporation
Internet properties established in 2016
Internet properties disestablished in 2017
American political blogs
American political websites
American news websites
American conservative websites
Libertarianism in the United States