Jim Acosta has announced his new journalistic career move after revealing that he would be leaving CNN on Tuesday.
The anchor announced that he has launched a brand-new Substack – just hours after making his final on-air broadcast with the legacy media outlet.
‘Welcome to my new venture,’ Acosta told more than 2million followers on the platform, while repeating a warning he delivered during his final broadcast.
The video was published shortly after two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times the journalist was already pondering his next steps, including a potential launch of his own journalistic enterprise.
Hours before, the anchor engaged in a very public split from the station, taking shots at Donald Trump in the process. Acosta framed his old enemy as ‘a tyrant’, after devoting much of the hour to report on his recent moves.
So far, Acosta’s Substack has two posts – one from today announcing his big move, and another from January 16, aptly titled ‘Coming soon, this is the Jim Acosta show.’
The newly announced Substack, meanwhile, will see him rub shoulders with other who have left their respective legacy news stations for more autonomy, including the former CNN staffer who broke the story last week, Oliver Darcy.
Darcy’s success with a newsletter format shows a shifting landscape in terms of news – one CEO Mark Thompson has seemingly caught wind of upon airing his intent to shift CNN’s operations to being more digital-based last week.
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Jim Acosta is without a network after announcing his departure from CNN Tuesday – and he has already launched his own journalistic venture. He’s seen here during what’s he has since confirmed to be his final broadcast
He did so in In a reshared video posted to X Tuesday afternoon that originally streamed live on his brand new blog, the anchor advertised a Substack that’s already up and running
This left one of his most successful anchors, Acosta, in limbo, with Darcy going on to reveal – via his Status newsletter – that he floated the anchor the idea of moving to a 12am timeslot. On CNN Newsroom Tuesday, Acosta made it clear what his answer had been.
‘I just wanted to end today’s show by thanking all of the wonderful people who work behind the scenes at this network,’ he told viewers, after an hour that saw him slam Trump’s recent deportations as – among other things – ‘a dog and pony show.’
‘You may have seen some reports about me and the show,’ he continued, referring to accounts initially obtained by Darcy.
‘And after giving all of this some careful consideration and weighing an alternative time slot, CNN offered me, I’ve decided to move on.
‘I just wanted to end today’s show by thanking all of the wonderful people who work behind the scenes at this network,’ he continued, not detailing what hour he was offered.
He did add how he came to the decision after ‘some careful consideration and weighing an alternative time slot CNN offered,’ before concluding with, ‘I’ve decided to move on.’
Hours later, at 4pm, a more dressed-down Acosta emerged in a self-filmed video posted to X, where he confirmed accounts obtained by The Times indicating he was ready to take a stab at journalism on his own.
‘Hey guys, it’s Jim – and let me just say this, I’ve had quite the day,’ he began, with a portrait of George Washington visible in the background – as well as a Substack watermark and handle indicating the video was originally posted, live, to the new page.
‘But as you can see, earlier today – this was my last day at CNN. And I did want to jump on Substack live here for a moment and say, welcome to my new venture. I’m going independent – at least for now.
‘Hey guys, it’s Jim – and let me just say this, I’ve had quite the day,’ he began, with a portrait of George Washington visible in the background – as well as a Substack watermark and accompanying handle indicating the video was originally posted to the new page
The journalist who famously clashed with Trump during his first term went on to tease, ‘This is just the beginning.’
‘But I wanted to invite you to join me here on this platform where we talk about the days news, talk about politics, and so on – and just in case you missed my closing message earlier in the day, don’t give into the lies. Don’t give into the fear.
‘Hold on to the truth,’ he continued. ‘And I hope we’ll keep this conversation going.
‘Great to see all of you here. We’ll talk some more soon.’
On the new page, Acosta penned an additional 740 words recalling his experiences at CNN, from being named chief White House correspondent in 2018 to taking his first assignment as a reporter in the Bronx in 2007.
The effective op-ed, titled Hold on to the truth…, for the most part served as a continuation to his comments on the air.
It saw Acosta add how, after that first assignment, ‘For the next 18 years… my cell phone was always on.
‘[R]eady for the next call that might send me rushing out the door to an awaiting live camera,’ he added. ‘That was the adrenaline rush of 24-hour cable news.’
Acosta is seen hear near his Washington, DC, on Monday, the day before he made the on-air announcement
‘From my brief stint in New York to the next 16 years in Washington, I covered just about everything imaginable for the network,’ he continued, mentioning five presidential elections and two ‘starkly different administrations’.
He went on to again offer an anecdote delivered earlier in the day to viewers about what he viewed as ‘the highlight of his career’ – a trip to Cuba in 2016 during diplomacy talks between then President Barack Obama and dictator Raul Castro.
Hours earlier, before offering the exact same insight, he opened with a joke that harked back to history with the current president: ‘People often ask me if the highlight of my career at CNN was at the White House covering [Trump].’
‘Actually, no,’ he sniped, after onlookers found themselves drawn to their repeated clashes during the president’s first term.
On Substack, he offered more insight – recalling how ‘he pressed Castro about his regime’s practice of jailing political prisoners.’
Acosta’s father immigrated to the US at age 11 as a refugee in 1962, weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis.
‘When I returned home, my father, a Cuban refugee, was beaming with pride,’ Acosta, 53, recalled. ‘He was glad I asked the question. One of the lasting lessons I took from that moment was this: it’s never a good time to bow down to a tyrant.’
The latter served as another repeat of his widely seen signoff, where he emphatically told viewers: ‘Even if you have to get out your phone, record that message. “I will not give in to the lies. I will not give in to the fear.”
On the new page, Acosta penned an additional 740 words recalling his experiences at CNN, from being named chief White House correspondent in 2018 to taking his first assignment as a reporter in the Bronx in 2007
‘Post it on your social media, so people can hear from you, too.’
The pleas proved prophetic, with Acosta repeating them on his new, private platform.
He then turned to 2018 and being named the network’s Chief White House Correspondent – a move that may have inadvertently put him in the then-president’s crosshairs.
‘As I detailed in my book, The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America, one deranged Trump supporter posted a threat on Twitter that included an image of a severed goat’s head,’ he recalled at a point, adding ‘I needed bodyguards to cover Trump’s rallies.’
‘Yes, I could have stepped away from the beat, but I chose to stay until the very end, reporting from the White House on January 6th and then on Air Force One on President Biden’s Inauguration Day, the same day Trump left office in disgrace.
‘The Trump administration and its MAGA allies made it their mission in life to run me out of town on a rail,’ he continued, before mentioning a 2018 incident involving an intern at the White House that saw his press pass temporarily revoked.
‘From the suspension of my White House press pass to the relentless calls for my firing on Fox News, not to mention the continuing threat environment for me and my loved ones, it was a trying time in my life.
‘But for me, there was always a greater purpose to the work,’ he went on, waxing poetic at this point.
‘Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and the resulting attack on the Capitol on January 6th gave journalists the assignment of a lifetime: the state of American democracy,’ he went on to proclaim.
Acosta, seen here in the foreground, often found himself at odds with Donald Trump during the latter’s first term
‘At the anchor desk, I made sure my program, “CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta,” devoted as much airtime as possible to reporting on Trump’s assault on our elections and the destructive aftermath of his actions.
Comparing his team to a ‘pit bull on steroids,’ he said he and fellow staffer at this point ‘made a clear decision: the show would not pull any punches. How could we?
‘But after two decades of service, I am leaving CNN to start a new chapter, and I won’t pull any punches this time around, either. I owe that to myself and to you,’ he concluded, not explicitly mentioning the reason for his leaving.
However, a meeting between Thompson and staffers held at the network’s Manhattan office on January 19 – the day before Trump was sworn in – perhaps offers a clue.
There, the former New York Times and BBC boss asked on-air talent like Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper to refrain from opinionated Trump reporting.
As the contents of his final broadcast may have indicated, Acosta may have not been willing to play ball.
As of writing, Acosta’s Substack – titled The Jim Acosta Show – has no new posts.
However, a note – cryptically titled Coming Soon – was posted back on January 16, three days before the Manhattan meeting.
A day before, Darcy published his report featuring insider quotes saying Wolf Blitzer was set to take Acosta’s hour – a prediction that came true.
The post’s contents read: ‘This is The Jim Acosta Show.’ No earlier ones are visible.
