PJ Media

PJ Media
Privately held company
Industry Online Media
Founded 2004
Founder Charles Foster Johnson, Roger L. Simon
Headquarters United States
Key people
Roger L. Simon
Products PJ Media, PJTV
Website PJ Media

PJ Media (originally known as Pajamas Media) is an American online media company and operator of an eponymous conservative news, opinion and commentary collaborative blog that was founded in 2004.

Charles Johnson, the blogger behind Little Green Footballs, teamed up with Roger L. Simon to create Pajamas Media after his contribution to the Killian documents controversy investigation in 2004 helped lead to the retraction of a 60 Minutes story critical of President George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard and Dan Rather's resignation from CBS News. Johnson and Simon set out to replace the mainstream media with a network of citizen-journalists.[1][2] The network was primarily made up of conservatives and libertarians.[3] Its original name was derived from a dismissive comment made by former CBS news executive Jonathan Klein during the 2004 Killian documents affair: "You couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances at 60 Minutes and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."[4][5]

Pajamas Media received venture capital funding in November, 2005. Pajamas used this funding for its operations and marketing while expanding its news and opinion coverage. Investors in this round of financing included Aubrey Chernick, an angel investor and technology entrepreneur, James Koshland, a venture capitalist, and a partnership formed by DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary.[6] It rebranded as Open Source Media shortly thereafter and had a launch party that included a keynote address by former New York Times journalist Judith Miller, presentations from John Podhoretz of Commentary magazine, Andrew Breitbart, Elizabeth Hayt of the New York Times, David Corn of The Nation, and others. Less than a week after its official launch Open Source Media changed its name back to Pajamas Media after discovering that Public Radio International distributed a radio show called Open Source produced by Open Source Media, Inc.[7]

Johnson and Pajamas split in 2007 by mutual agreement; Johnson's stake was bought out.[8][9]

In October 2011, Pajamas Media changed its name to PJ Media.[10]

References

  1. Andrew Leigh (2005). "Pajama-Clad Revolutionaries". National Review (November 15, 2005).
  2. Peter Hannaford (May 12, 2005). "Pajama Game". The American Spectator.
  3. "An open letter to all bloggers" by Roger L. Simon, April 28, 2005
  4. "How the Blogosphere Took on CBS' Docs"
  5. American Dialect Society: 2004 Words of the Year.
  6. "Pajamas Media Closes $3.5 Million Venture Round" (Press release). Pajamas Media. November 14, 2005.
  7. ANICK JESDANUN (November 22, 2005). "Media Web Site Reverts Back to Old Name". Associated Press.
  8. "Conservative in Liberal Hands".
  9. Hillel Aron (Dec 4, 2009). "Charles Johnson And His Little Green Footballs: Holding Down The Center". Neon Tommy, online publication of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. Archived from the original on Dec 13, 2009.
  10. "Pajamas Media Becomes PJ Media" (Press release). PJ Media. October 25, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
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