The Western Journal

The Western Journal was originally founded in 2009 as WesternJournalism.com, a project of the Western Center for Journalism. At the time the site simply linked to other content producers and served as a hub for important current events in the political and media sphere. The site was established to provide an alternative for readers fed up with the overt politicization of establishment media outlets. Over time, the audience grew and writers and thinkers began submitting original pieces to be published in full. In 2011, the marketing team created the Facebook page Western Journalism and began publishing political news and commentary from the site on the growing social network. It wasn't until 2013, however, that Western Journalism hired its first full-time staff writer and branched into publishing only original content. During this time, the site grew rapidly, reaching several hundred thousand readers daily by the end of 2013. The beginning of 2014 marked a strategic turning point for Western Journalism, as the staff began focusing heavily on their Facebook audience, experimenting with engaging titles, and analyzing results in real time. By May 2014, over four million unique visitors were reading Western Journalism each month. In mid-2014, the director of marketing for the Western Center for Journalism, Patrick Brown, left to found Liftable Media Inc. and its first brand, the uplifting lifestyle site Liftable.com. Liftable Media's founding mission is to be a positive influence on culture, rather than a negative influence. Patrick took what he'd learned in building social media optimized content on Western Journalism and by November five million unique visitors were reading Liftable.com each month. Liftable Media still maintained close contact with the Western Journalism staff, and recognizing the overlap in audience and mission, offered to buy WesternJournalism.com. The offer was accepted and Liftable Media made its first acquisition, officially integrating WesternJournalism.com into Liftable Media on January 1st, 2015. Not long after, Liftable Media was approached by the founder of ConservativeTribune.com, a conservative opinion blog that had seen success on Facebook. The founder, Shaun Connell, wanted to work on other projects and asked if Liftable Media was interested in buying it. So, in April 2015, Liftable Media made its second large acquisition, buying ConservativeTribune.com. In November of 2017, WesternJournalism.com was rebranded as The Western Journal and moved to WesternJournal.com. In April of 2018, Conservative Tribune, Liftable, and The Wildcard, a sports site established in 2017 and also owned by Liftable Media, were integrated into The Western Journal as sections of one overarching site, The Western Journal.