Life after the Post ... at the Sun

Good morning, DMV! It’s Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Many of you have asked what my former Washington Post colleagues are up to now. Here’s an update.

Have you heard of the Washington Sun? It launched in 2024 as NOTUS, focused on national politics and policy. Then after Washington Post layoffs earlier this year decimated its staff covering local news, NOTUS invested, more than doubling the size of its newsroom in six months.

“Our work puts Washington front and center, and we wanted our name to do the same. So NOTUS — short for News of the United States — is now The Washington Sun,” editor-in-chief Tim Grieve wrote in his welcome note earlier this month.

I’d first heard of NOTUS late last year, a few months before the Post layoffs. My friend and colleague Kelly Poe, who helped build the Post Local newsletter that I wrote and edited, had applied for a job with an outlet she described as a startup backed by the founder of Politico.

The vibe in the Post newsroom at the time was grim. Layoffs were coming. I urged Kelly to go for it. Her last day at the Post was Jan. 23. She became the second Post staffer to join NOTUS.

Now — according to columnist Dana Milbank, who joined the Sun after 26 years at the Post — at least 28 staffers at the Washington Sun are former Posties.

I wanted to know: Life after the Post … at the Sun — how does it feel? Here’s what they said.

Look, I loved my 25+ years as food critic at the Post. It was a dream job. And I loved (most of) the readers. The prompt to leave was the last buyout, funds from which I planned to use as seed money for my next chapter. Which turned out to be launching my online newsletter (“Next Course”). Which also led to being hired by NOTUS/The Washington Sun.

What a ride! I honestly haven’t been as excited for my industry since the mid-90s, when I left print for a few years to work on a big editorial project for Microsoft. With regard to the Sun, what’s not to like about working with both fresh and senior talent, serious funding, an experienced leadership team, and a civic-minded mission? The response from readers has been overwhelming and reassuring. People are hungry for good/reliable/fair reporting. I’m thrilled to be part of the forward-thinking team.

Honestly, it’s a mix of excitement and deep gratitude. I’m so grateful to be part of the exponential growth happening at the Sun, especially when it comes to our expanding local reporting. More than anything, I’m thrilled to work under ownership that truly prioritizes journalism rooted in the needs and desires of the immediate community.

I miss the Post — not the Post of today but the one of a decade and two decades ago, when the place was scrappy and fun, and our journalism was an integral part of the Washington community. This is what we are trying to build at the Sun, and I’m delighted to be part of this grand experiment.

The best part of joining the Sun has been hearing people’s reaction to what we are doing. “I loved the newsletter today and made all my coworkers sign up.” “We are rooting for y’all,” and I swear I’m not making this one up: “Please, please take my money!” From readers to friends to neighbors, the buzz is real and feels so good.

I’m feeling very good about life after The Post, something that is somewhat surprising after 19-plus years there. What I’ve found at NOTUS/The Sun is the ability to have fun again doing a job I really love, without looking over our collective shoulders waiting for some next shoe to drop (another round of buyouts, another reshuffling of the newsroom leadership, or a reshuffling of the business-side leadership, or a pivot in the Opinion section that leads to another reshuffling of that section's leadership).

In 2 years and a few months, roughly 600 journalists left The Post’s newsroom, about a 60 percent reduction via two buyout rounds and one mass layoffs. It became too toxic. At The Sun, we are growing and have a great sense of what we are doing to make this town feel the news again. Some of my favorite stories at The Post were collaborations among Sports, Maryland state Capitol bureau, DC Council bureau and Congress.

Several of those sections don’t exist there anymore. We’re building out now at The Sun.

When Tim [Grieve] asked me in an early interview why I was thinking about leaving The Post, I answered honestly: It wasn’t that I was looking, exactly, but I was ready … I’m sure you’ve read plenty about us in the news lately, I told him … I think it would be unwise to not at least consider my options.

Then one cold Friday I sat eating a salad with Alisa telling her about the interview the day before. I was almost scared by how much I liked this company … Everyone I interviewed with was so happy to be there; they all kept talking about the vibes. It had been so long since I felt good vibes.

The size of the newsroom has doubled since I got here. I went from one of two ex-Posties to one of a couple dozen. This place I hadn’t heard of a year ago has become such an important stop in my life.

Dear readers: I consider my Daily Dose a community gratitude journal. It’s free, and I work on it solo, spending hours each day mining for story ideas, interviewing and exploring. Please consider supporting my work with a monthly or yearly donation to help make this project sustainable. Do you know anyone who would enjoy reading me? Forward this to them to help me grow. For newcomers: To subscribe, click here. And to those who already support me: I appreciate you.

Jennie Gosché, 75, took this recent sunset photo from her balcony in Kensington, Maryland.

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