Independent Journal Review
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| Type of business | Private |
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Type of site
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News aggregation, blogging, original reporting |
| Available in | English |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Owner | Media Group of America |
| Founder(s) | Alex Skatell, Phil Musser |
| Key people | Alex Skatell, Phil Musser |
| Industry | News |
| Employees | 52 |
| Website | ijr |
| Advertising | Yes |
| Launched | 2012 |
| Current status | Active |
The Independent Journal Review is an American news and opinion website based in Alexandria, Virginia. The publication was founded in 2012 by former Republican party staffers Alex Skatell and Phil Musser. The publication is owned by Media Group of America. Skatell serves as its CEO. The site covers general interest topics including politics, culture, entertainment, and viral news content.
In 2012, Skatell hired Bert Atkinson as chief editor. Soon afterward, the website hired Kyle Becker, who became the managing editor. In 2016, Atkinson left Independent Journal Review to join the start-up Axios. The editorial team is currently led by Becker, the director of viral media, and Benny Johnson, the chief content officer. Matthew Manda, fiancé of Representative Elise Stefanik, is the site's spokesman. The site has been described as appealing to a younger, mainstream center-right audience.
In 2012, Alex Skatell, a former digital director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, launched the Independent Journal Review, using $40,000 that Skatell had earned via a software application that he developed at college and $20,000 borrowed from his parents. He believed that there was a gap in the market for a publication that would appeal to "a more mainstream center-right audience" and began aggregating news stories on a Facebook page called Conservative Daily. Skatell promoted the page and later launched the Independent Journal Review.
Skatell then teamed up with Phil Musser, a former executive director of the Republican Governors Association, who became a co-founder of the journal, as well as Media Group of America. Skatell then hired his friend Bert Atkinson to fill the position of editor and chief writer. Atkinson hired a staff of writers and editors to contribute to and grow the journal. By November 2014, the organization employed approximately fifty full-time staff members and several contributing writers.
The site attracted an audience that largely lived outside Washington D.C. political circles that had broader interests than average consumers of political news.
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