Welcome to Pivot! Here’s why Young Voices is starting a Substack

As President and Executive Director of Young Voices, I am pleased to introduce our organization’s first Substack, Pivot.

For 11 years now, my team has labored for Young Voices to become a leader on the center-right when it comes to media placements. Currently, Young Voices’ network produces 150+ media hits every single month between op-eds, radio, TV, and podcast interviews reaching millions.

We’re proud of this work. As believers in creative destruction, however, we are constantly monitoring the shifting nature of the media landscape and reevaluating how we can keep our competitive edge … which brings us to Substack.

One popular takeaway from the 2024 presidential election that we as an organization subscribe to is the fact that traditional media is dying. The heyday of newspapers, radio, and cable news are in the past.

That’s not to write a eulogy prematurely! Mainstream media still has an important role to play, and legacy prestige of outlets like The Wall Street Journal still carry weight. As such, pitching to traditional media outlets is and likely always will be part of Young Voices’ strategy to gain influence for classical liberal ideas.

However, we also acknowledge the reality that the traditional gatekeepers of accepted public opinion are losing ground year after year. For better or worse, we live in a brave new world of bloggers, influencers, and pundits operating largely independently. At Young Voices, we plan to ride that wave instead of getting swept under water.

How will we do that? I won’t reveal the full strategy just yet. We have a number of projects in the works that will transform how we do things in just about every program we currently offer. However, Step #1 is the launch of this Substack.

Why the name Pivot? With the election of Donald Trump to a second presidential term, it’s universally accepted that there has been a realignment on the right. As a network of rising classical liberal leaders, we aim to explore what this vibe shift means for free society. What role do libertarians and freedom conservatives have to play in influencing policy to preserve what’s great about America while also acknowledging and fixing its problems?

In short: The world has changed, so those of us who believe in freedom must pivot to stay relevant. That is the hypothesis of this Substack and what its posts will explore.

Instead of limiting ourselves to the traditional op-ed format, posts on Pivot will be upstream of policy. They will explore the shifting theater of politics instead of just the players and scenes. Metapolitics, if you will.

That means that we are not limiting ourselves to 800 words, as we typically do in an op-ed. Some posts will be shorter, many will be longer. While Young Voices’ staff will always accept unsolicited pitches from our writers and guests, most posts will aim to answer a question posed by myself as executive director and my talented staff at our periodic content meetings.

So let’s get started! We have several posts in the hopper already. Coming up this month, Victoria Churchill, who recently ended her tenure as an election reporter for the New York Post, will explore how “podcast bros” might have tipped the presidency for Trump and the significance of this development for the broader media landscape. Sam Raus will explore what type of questions Democrats should be asking themselves in an honest post-mortem to revive their party. Isaac Willour will explore what ending wokeness means practically in the corporate world, speaking from first-hand experience.

If you’d like to contact us, you can send your comments and pitches to pivot@joinyv.org. And, of course, I’m always available at casey@joinyv.org.

Without further ado, let’s start these important conversations to make freedom the forefront of the political discussion.