The Baltimore Banner

Founded in 2022 by the Venetoulis Institute for local journalism.

It was launched on June 14, 2022. By the end of 2024, the publication had 55,000 subscribers and generated $13 million in revenue, with 45% from subscriptions, 35% from advertising, and 22% from philanthropy.

History and Founding

The Baltimore Banner was born directly out of a failed acquisition battle. In 2021, Maryland businessman and philanthropist Stewart W. Bainum Jr. — chairman of Choice Hotels International — made a bid to purchase The Baltimore Sun from Alden Global Capital, the hedge fund notorious for acquiring and cutting local newspapers, as part of Alden's purchase of Tribune Publishing. Alden rejected Bainum's offer. Bainum then escalated, making a $650 million bid to purchase all of Tribune Publishing with the intention of spinning off individual papers to local nonprofit ownership structures. That bid, too, was unsuccessful; Tribune ultimately went to Alden.

Bainum had spent years watching the Sun shrink under successive ownership changes and, in his own words, had marveled since his time in the Maryland State Legislature in the 1970s at reporters' ability to expose abuses of power. Rather than abandon his goal, he pivoted to what he called "Plan B": pledging $50 million of his own money to launch an independent, all-digital, nonprofit competitor from scratch. He founded the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — to serve as the Banner's parent organization. The institute was named in honor of Ted Venetoulis, a former Baltimore politician and newspaper owner who had championed the "Save Our Sun" movement and played a key role in early efforts to bring the Sun into local nonprofit hands. Venetoulis died unexpectedly shortly before The Banner's launch.

Bainum modeled the venture partly on the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the nonprofit that owns The Philadelphia Inquirer, and engaged the Lenfest Institute as an early advisor. His goal was twofold: to give Maryland a high-quality independent news organization, and to create a replicable model of nonprofit journalism at scale that other communities could adopt. He named the publication after the Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812 and inspired the U.S. national anthem.

In October 2021, the Venetoulis Institute hired Kimi Yoshino, former managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, as the Banner's first editor-in-chief, and Imtiaz Patel — a former vice president of strategy at the Wall Street Journal with experience in newspaper restructuring — as CEO. The Banner launched on June 14, 2022, with a newsroom of approximately 40 journalists and ambitions to grow to more than 100. It opened in downtown Baltimore waterfront offices and quickly began publishing across politics, criminal justice, education, housing, sports, arts and culture, and business.

Within months of launch, the Banner acquired Varsity Sports Network to bolster high school sports coverage. It expanded geographically in early 2024 into Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County, and Howard County, and later in 2025 launched a dedicated edition, The Banner: Montgomery, covering Montgomery County — a prosperous Washington suburb where Bainum himself lives and works. The Banner also moved to cover Washington-area sports teams including the Nationals and Commanders, partly in response to the Washington Post's decision to eliminate its sports section. To reflect this expanding statewide footprint, the publication dropped "Baltimore" from its web domain in 2025, operating as thebanner.com.

Yoshino departed in May 2025 to become a managing editor at The Washington Post. She was succeeded as editor-in-chief in October 2025 by Audrey Cooper, former top editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and most recently senior vice president of news and editor-in-chief of WNYC, the most-listened-to public radio station in the United States. Bob Cohn, a veteran of The Economist, The Atlantic, and Condé Nast, serves as president and CEO.

In April 2026, the Venetoulis Institute announced the acquisition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of the nation's oldest regional newspapers (founded 1786), from Block Communications, which had announced plans to close the paper. The purchase was funded through an additional $30 million pledge from Bainum to the institute. The Post-Gazette, which had been through a three-year union strike — the longest in modern newspaper history — and had 60,000 combined print and digital subscribers and a newsroom of around 100 journalists, will continue to be published under nonprofit ownership, with back-office operations integrated with the Banner's.

Coverage and Content

The Banner's editorial coverage spans the full range of local and regional news for Maryland, organized around beats including politics (state and local government), criminal justice and gun violence, education (early childhood through higher education), housing, health, climate and environment, transportation, business and economy, arts and culture, sports, and food and drink. The paper covers Baltimore City and surrounding counties in depth, with regional reporters covering areas including the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland that lack other local news sources.

Sports coverage has been a significant part of the Banner's audience-building strategy, with dedicated beats for the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationals, Washington Commanders, and college sports, alongside original podcasts including the Banner Baseball Show and the Banner Ravens Podcast.

The publication has invested in distinctive multimedia programming including its Creatives in Residence initiative, which supports Baltimore writers and artists; an Impact Maryland philanthropy vertical; a book club; and events programming. Its Education Hub, launched in 2022, has a dedicated reporting team covering all levels of schooling in the region.

The Banner's most celebrated investigative work to date has been its coverage of Baltimore's drug overdose crisis, a series reported by Alissa Zhu, Nick Thieme, and photojournalist Jessica Gallagher. The series won a George Polk Award in February 2025 and subsequently the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, shared with the New York Times — making the Banner the first nonprofit digital news startup to win a Pulitzer Prize in local reporting.

Access and Funding

The Banner operates a metered paywall with digital subscriptions starting at $1 for an introductory period, renewing at $235 annually (approximately $60/year for some tiers). As of late 2025, the publication had more than 70,000 subscribers and approximately 150 people in combined business and newsroom operations. Revenue in 2024 was approximately $13 million, with roughly 45% from subscriptions, 35% from advertising, and 22% from philanthropy. CEO Bob Cohn projected 36% revenue growth for 2025.

The Banner is committed to becoming financially self-sustaining, with a long-term target of no more than 15% of revenue from philanthropy and 50% or more from subscriptions. It does not plan to rely indefinitely on Bainum's founding gift, though his $50 million commitment and subsequent pledges provide the runway for scale. The publication accepts donations from the public through its giving page.

The Baltimore Banner / The Banner
The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism
Baltimore, Maryland

Phone (customer care): 443-843-0043
Email: customercare@thebaltimorebanner.com
Website: thebanner.com
Newsletters: thebanner.com/newsletters
Donate: thebanner.com/give
Advertise: thebanner.com/advertising

Metadata

Categories: Nonprofit News Organizations · Local and Regional News · US News Organizations · Digital Publications · Investigative Journalism · Subscription-Supported Media

Mission: To be the most essential and compelling news resource for the people of Maryland — informing, strengthening, and inspiring communities through trusted journalism that tells people's stories, holds leaders accountable, and creates a sustainable and replicable model for independent local news.

Year Founded: 2022

Description: The Baltimore Banner is a digital nonprofit news organization founded in June 2022 by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, backed by a $50 million founding pledge from Maryland businessman Stewart Bainum Jr. Operating a newsroom of approximately 95–150 journalists, it is one of the largest nonprofit local newsrooms in the United States. The Banner won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for coverage of Baltimore's drug overdose crisis and has since expanded statewide and, through its parent institute, acquired the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2026.

URL:  https://www.thebanner.com