Hunterbrook

Hunterbrook
Available inEnglish
Country of originUnited States
Founder(s)Sam Koppelman
Nathaniel Horwitz
CEONathaniel Horwitz
Key peopleFitzAnn Reid (Chief Counsel)
IndustryJournalism
URLhttps://hntrbrk.com/
Launched2023

Hunterbrook is an American investigative news outlet, investment firm, and non-profit foundation. It was founded by Sam Koppelman and Nathaniel Horwitz in 2023 and launched in 2024.[1] Hunterbrook relies on open-source intelligence for its reporting, and attempts to profit from its reporting through financial trading and litigation.[2]

History

Hunterbrook was launched in 2023 by Koppelman, Horwitz, Fitzann Reid, and Emily Pate. Koppelman and Horwitz met at The Harvard Crimson, the undergraduate newspaper of Harvard University, and co-founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Mayday Health before starting Hunterbrook.[3][4][5]

Koppelman authored books with Neal Katyal and Eric Holder.[6] Horwitz was a venture partner at RA Capital Management.[7][8]

The company's name is a portmanteau of Koppelman's middle name, Hunter, after the journalist Hunter S. Thompson, and the last name of Horwitz's mother, the author and war journalist Geraldine Brooks.[3] The company established a media wing, Hunterbrook Media, and an associated investment firm, Hunterbrook Capital. Hunterbrook Capital launched with $100 million dollars and received seed funding from Marc Lasry, David Fialkow, Peter Kolchinsky, and Emerson Collective.[9][3] The Hunterbrook Foundation assists in litigation against companies that Hunterbrook Media finds to be acting potentially illegally.[10] Its board of advisors includes Paul Steiger, William Cohan, Daniel Okrent, Bethany McLean, and Matt Murray.[11][12]

Hunterbrook has a unique arrangement, in which Hunterbrook Capital trades based on Hunterbrook Media's reporting. Hunterbrook Capital pays the media wing for first access to the articles so it can place trades before articles are published, then "takes both long and short positions on equities, plus invests in other asset classes like commodities and derivatives."[13][14] To avoid regulatory issues, Hunterbrook Media often does not rely on inside sources for its reporting, and discloses positions taken by Hunterbrook Capital related to articles.[9] Its first investigation, published when the company launched, focused on alleged fraud at United Wholesale Mortgage.[15][16]

Based on the same data identified by Hunterbrook, the Ohio Attorney General sued UWM, which also faces a national class action RICO lawsuit on behalf of homebuyers. UWM described the lawsuit as a "sham" and accused Hunterbrook of being behind it.[17][18]

Axios reported that Hunterbrook's areas of emphasis "include environmental and humanitarian stories, healthcare, and coverage from countries that otherwise see very little good reporting at all."[19]

Hunterbrook compiled a report with the International Partnership for Human Rights and the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission revealing that components used to make Russian weaponry and used in attacks against Ukraine originate from American companies.[20][21]

Reception and controversy

Hunterbrook's business model has attracted scrutiny. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism called Hunterbrook "one of the most unusual experiments in media ethics."[22] It also said Hunterbrook's "reporting seems very strong, of the same caliber as what you'd find in top national business news outlets." Critics have argued that blurring the lines between reporting and revenue generation potentially violates longstanding journalistic norms.[9]

In May 2024, Hunterbrook generated controversy after Semafor revealed that Koppelman is an investor in ZBiotics, a competitor to anti-hangover drink Safety Shot, which Hunterbrook had investigated. Koppelman argued that ZBiotics was not a competitor, as did the founder of ZBiotics.[23]

The Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine proposed that "it could be in Hunterbrook’s long-term interest to invest in some investigations that are not actionable" if "those investigations build up audience and credibility for the news outlet,"[24] based on a Newsweek report that "Hunterbrook Media, an open-source investigative news outlet, shared a screenshot of other entities purportedly linked to Drake, adding that the rapper 'also seems to own at least 20 other shell companies, according to information accessed via Sayari.'"[25]

Axios reported "there's certainly no guarantee of success, but the idea is intriguing," and "whether or not Hunterbrook's output is journalism is a mostly theological question."[26]

References

  1. ^ Franklin, Joshua; Duguid, Kate (April 2, 2024). "News-powered hedge fund raises $100mn to trade on reporters' scoops". Financial Times. Retrieved July 6, 2025.
  2. ^ Levine, Matt (September 24, 2024). "The Chatbot Will Pick the Stocks". Bloomberg. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Malone, Clare (May 2, 2024). "Is Hunterbrook Media a News Outlet or a Hedge Fund?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved April 30, 2025.
  4. ^ Alter, Charlotte (December 9, 2022). "This Group Wants to Teach You How to Get Abortions Even Where They're Banned". TIME. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  5. ^ Aymond, Natalie (August 17, 2022). "Mayday, mayday, mayday: Abortion pills to the rescue". The Martha's Vineyard Times. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  6. ^ Malone, Clare (May 2, 2024). "Is Hunterbrook Media a News Outlet or a Hedge Fund?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved July 6, 2025.
  7. ^ "Nathaniel Horwitz". HUNTERBROOK. March 14, 2025. Retrieved July 6, 2025.
  8. ^ "Biotech Executives Call for Action on Reproductive Health Rights - TimmermanReport.com". Timmerman Report. October 26, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  9. ^ a b c "This Hedge Fund Wants to Save Investigative Journalism — By Using It to Game the Market". POLITICO. May 25, 2024. Retrieved April 30, 2025.
  10. ^ Koppelman, Sam (April 2, 2024). "Dear Reader — Hunterbrook Media Launch". HUNTERBROOK. Retrieved April 30, 2025.
  11. ^ "Team". HUNTERBROOK. Retrieved April 30, 2025.
  12. ^ Franklin, Joshua; Duguid, Kate (April 2, 2024). "News-powered hedge fund raises $100mn to trade on reporters' scoops". Financial Times. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  13. ^ Primack, Dan (November 2, 2023). "New hedge fund is hiring journalists to not do journalism". Axios. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  14. ^ Franklin, Joshua; Duguid, Kate (April 2, 2024). "News-powered hedge fund raises $100mn to trade on reporters' scoops". Financial Times. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  15. ^ Malone, Clare (May 2, 2024). "Is Hunterbrook Media a News Outlet or a Hedge Fund?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  16. ^ Levine, Matt (April 2, 2024). "Bloomberg: A Hedge Fund That's Also a Newspaper".
  17. ^ Scarcella, Mike (April 3, 2024). "Mortgage lender United Wholesale sued by consumers alleging billions in excess fees". Reuters. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  18. ^ "Ohio attorney general sues UWM, alleging 'predatory business practices'". Crain's Detroit Business. April 17, 2025. Retrieved July 6, 2025.
  19. ^ Salmon, Felix (November 4, 2023). "Why Hunterbrook wants to combine two worlds". Axios. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  20. ^ "US electronic components still turning up in Russian fighter jets: Report". Newsweek. July 4, 2025. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  21. ^ "Parts of the Problem: Tracing Western Tech in Russia's Deadliest Jets". IPHR. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  22. ^ Benton, Joshua (April 3, 2024). "A new kind of activist journalism: Hunterbrook investigates corporations (and hopes to make bank trading off its reporting)". NiemanLab.
  23. ^ "Short-selling news startup didn't disclose investment in anti-hangover drink | Semafor". Archived from the original on December 8, 2024. Retrieved April 30, 2025.
  24. ^ Levine, Matt (May 7, 2024). "Bond Markets Are the New Stock Markets: Electronification, the private secondary market, Bill Hwang's motives and Hunterbrook's music section".
  25. ^ Member, Entertainment Reporter Newsweek Is A. Trust Project (May 8, 2024). "Drake's "Silence Policy" shell corporation raises questions". Newsweek. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  26. ^ Salmon, Felix (November 4, 2023). "Why Hunterbrook wants to combine two worlds". Axios. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.