John Heilemann and John Battelle have joined forces to launch The Recount, “a new approach to video journalism covering political news.”
Heilemann, of Showtime’s “The Circus” and co-author of “Game Change,” tweeted on Monday night: “Psyched to take the wraps off a new project I’ve been working on.”
Battelle, whose site advertises his founding or co-founding of “scores of media, tech, conference, and other businesses,” like Wired Magazine and The Industry Standard, used his blog to elaborate a little.
“Today we’re announcing a public beta product from the company I’ve been building with my longtime friend and collaborator John Heilemann and many other talented folks,” he wrote. “We’re starting with an email newsletter featuring a new approach to video journalism covering political news.”
The site’s landing page is a little more direct than its co-founders’ posts, calling their first product, The Daily Recount, “a video mashup that samples and remixes traditional coverage, cutting through the bulls–t and bad faith, making viewers smart about the stories that matter every day … in five minutes or less.”
The Recount, with its focus on video, follows a trend of digital platforms offering up visual content over written work, though the trend has come under fire for costing reporters their jobs. According to CNN, more than a dozen people have already been hired to work at The Recount, which is backed by outside investors that have not yet been named.
Heilemann and Battelle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.