Metric Media is a right-of-center media organization that operates more than 1,200 local news sites across the United States as well as business news publications in education, health care, hospitality, energy, law enforcement, and science. ^{1 2 3}

It has been widely criticized by left-leaning activists and media critics over claims of excessive partisanship and insufficient transparency of its operations. ^{4 2 5}

Operations

Metric Media includes both Metric Media LLC, which manages the Metric Media sites, and the charitable nonprofit Community News Foundation, which operates as the Metric Media Foundation. ^{1 6 3}

Metric Media operates news sites in all 50 states, ranging from 56 sites in Texas to four each in Hawaii and Rhode Island. ⁶ With 1,200 sites, it operates more than twice as many local news sites as Gannett, the largest traditional newspaper chain in the United States. ⁴

Metric Media LLC claims to publish more than five million news articles per month, including “auto-generated data stories, interviews with local residents, and in-depth reports.” ¹ Its “Community Newsmaker” tool solicits residents to share news and event announcements with its relevant local news sites, and connects newsmakers to reporters for interviews. ⁷

Metric Media is led by media executive and right-of-center activist Brian Timpone. ⁸ According to an investigation by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, in 2019 Metric Media’s sites were managed by five separate corporate entities with connections to Timpone and conservative talk radio host Dan Proft. ⁹

The Tow Center drew parallels to an earlier local news aggregation company founded by Timpone that was reported to have used fake bylines on articles it published on behalf of the Houston Chronicle and to have allegedly plagiarized a story from the Chicago Tribune. ¹⁰

Criticism

Metric Media has been criticized by left-of-center activists and media critics for its supposed efforts to use the appearance of community-based journalism to conceal right-of-center activism and advocacy. ^{11 2 12 13} Left-wing activists have given Metric Media’s journalism the derogatory nickname “pink slime,” a reference to low-quality beef and chicken trimmings artificially processed to pass as higher-quality meats. ^{14 15}

Between 2019 and 2021, a series of articles by Priyajana Benghani in the Columbia Journalism Review reported on Metric Media’s funding, operations, and connections to other organizations, with a focus on the relationships between its leadership and right-of-center funders and activists. ^{11 2} Benghani’s analysis, which characterized Metric Media’s journalism as “algorithmic stories and conservative talking points,” drew heavily from reports by left-leaning activists and authors including the Center for Media and Democracy, Jane Mayer, and Mother Jones. ^{11 2 9} It focused heavily on the funding the Metric Media Foundation received through DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund that supports right-leaning public policy organizations .²

In 2020, a New York Times article characterized Metric Media sites as “a pay to play network” and claimed it “publishes coverage that is ordered up by Republican groups and corporate P.R. firms.” ⁴ While the Times article did note that left-of-center activists operated Courier Newsroom and other sites under similar partisan-leaning models, it claimed that Metric Media’s reporting was more heavily directed by corporate and political interests than other such sites. ⁴ Ben Ashkar, the COO of a company that managed Metric Media sites, dismissed those “pay to play” allegations. ⁴

1. Metric Media. Accessed June 24, 2024. https://www.metricmedia.org/.
2. Bengani, Priyajana. “The Metric Media Network Runs More than 1,200 Local News Sites. Here Are Some of the Non-Profits Funding Them.” Columbia Journalism Review, October 14, 2021. https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/metric-media-lobbyists-funding.php.
3. Community News Foundation. Accessed June 24, 2024. https://www.communitynewsfoundation.com/.
4. Alba, Davey, and Jack Nicas. “As Local News Dies, a Pay-for-Play Network Rises in Its Place.” The New York Times, October 18, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/technology/timpone-local-news-metric-media.html.
5. Fischer, Sara. “‘Pink Slime’ News Outlets Outpacing Local Daily Newspapers.” Axios, June 11, 2024. https://www.axios.com/2024/06/11/partisan-news-websites-dark-money.
6. Metric Media News. Accessed June 24, 2024. https://metricmedianews.com/.
7. Community News Maker. Accessed June 24, 2024. https://www.communitynewsmaker.com/.
8.  Fortmeyer, Nathaniel Dean, William H. Freivogel, and William Recktenwald. “Reporting Local News from Thousands of Miles Away.” Gateway Journalism Review, November 28, 2017. https://gatewayjr.org/reporting-local-news-from-thousands-of-miles-away/.
9. Bengani, Priyajana. “Hundreds of ‘Pink Slime’ Local News Outlets Are Distributing Algorithmic Stories and Conservative Talking Points.” Columbia Journalism Review, December 18, 2019. https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/hundreds-of-pink-slime-local-news-outlets-are-distributing-algorithmic-stories-conservative-talking-points.php.
10. Sonderman, Jeff. “Journatic Published Hundreds of Stories under Fake Bylines on Houston Chronicle Websites.” Poynter, July 16, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120718014923/https://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/181009/journatic-published-hundreds-of-stories-under-fake-bylines-on-houston-chronicle-websites/.
11. Bengani, Priyajana. “As Election Looms, a Network of Mysterious ‘Pink Slime’ Local News Outlets Nearly Triples in Size.” Columbia Journalism Review, October 14, 2021. https://www.cjr.org/analysis/as-election-looms-a-network-of-mysterious-pink-slime-local-news-outlets-nearly-triples-in-size.php.
12. Benjamin, Jack. “Fake Local News Sites on Pace to Outnumber Local US Newspapers.” The Media Leader, December 5, 2022. https://the-media-leader.com/fake-local-news-sites-on-pace-to-outnumber-local-us-newspapers/.
13. Monacelli, Steven. “A Company Linked to a Large ‘Pink Slime’ Network Is Being Hired by Big Publishers like Gannett.” Nieman Lab, March 14, 2024. https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/03/a-company-linked-to-a-large-pink-slime-network-is-being-hired-by-big-publishers-like-gannett/.
14. Brown, Pete. “‘Pink Slime’: Partisan Journalism and the Future of Local News.” Columbia Journalism Review, January 26, 2024. https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/pink-slime-partisan-journalism-and-the-future-of-local-news.php.
15. Barclay, Eliza. “Is It Safe to Eat ‘Pink Slime’?” NPR, March 9, 2012. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/03/09/148298678/is-it-safe-to-eat-pink-slime.