ABOUT US

Hunterbrook Media is a new kind of newsroom.

We publish investigative and global reporting with no ads or paywalls. Our mission is to bring visibility to under‑covered areas and accountability to under‑scrutinized sectors.

Accuracy and trust are key.

Hunterbrook articles include detailed references for verification by journalists, litigators, investors, policy-makers, advocates, consumers, regulators, and other readers. Investigations are rigorously fact-checked, copy-edited, and legally vetted.

To share ideas: ideas@hntrbrk.com

Media inquiries: press@hntrbrk.com

Work opportunities: talent@hntrbrk.com

We built this platform because we want our reporting to be freely available and without ads or clickbait. We developed our business model because we believe that exceptional journalism is not just an indispensable part of a free society, but also has enormous economic value that has traditionally been captured by everyone except the news outlets and people publishing it.

We generate revenue in two ways:

1) Litigation. We may partner with litigation firms that bring cases empowered by the facts our reporting uncovers, aimed at getting restitution for people who have been harmed. Relevant litigation deals are disclosed in our articles.

2) Investment. When our reporting does not include Material Non-Public Information (“insider info”), we may share it with our affiliated fund. Relevant investments are disclosed in our articles.

Our reporting has been featured in Bloomberg, The New Yorker, The Financial Times, POLITICO, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, The New York Times, Axios, Puck, Fox Business, Wired, Fast Company, Business Insider, Sports Illustrated, and many other outlets. We also co-publish with local newspapers.

Since our launch in April 2024, we’ve published across many regions and sectors — and made a big impact. Here are several of those stories:

Reported on human rights, environmental issues, essential resources, supply chains, and fair markets across Mongolia, Namibia, Botswana, Peru, Brazil, India, Argentina, and other countries — and scrutinized two multinational conglomerates tied to the junta in Myanmar.
Exposed America’s largest home lender, United Wholesale Mortgage, for an alleged nationwide fraud. Misleading content promptly disappeared from UWM’s channels, including a Super Bowl ad. The company now faces a class action by homebuyers alleging RICO violations and a lawsuit by the Attorney General of Ohio based on our reporting.
Revealed a widespread defect in Winnebago’s Grand Design RVs called frame failure, as well as the company’s efforts to cover it up through the use of NDAs and buybacks. The investigation was widely covered, from Bloomberg to Fox. The company now faces a class action by RV owners alleging consumer protection violations.
Covered recurrent battery plant fires in Monterey and elevated levels of heavy metals in the soil. Several litigation firms are now working with the local community in Moss Landing.
Discovered that the agricultural giant Archer-Daniels-Midland is connected to two undisclosed facilities in Xinjiang, a region known for forced labor, and may have been involved in grain theft from Ukraine by Russia. Within a couple of weeks after our reporting, the company’s Global Head of Supply and its VP of Operations both left ADM.
Analyzed the worldwide activities of the vehicle manufacturer VinFast: unfulfilled promises, a factory that would not meet its projected 2025 launch, and a paucity of vehicle sales to anyone other than the CEO’s own companies. VinFast later announced the factory is delayed until 2028. The NHTSA is investigating VinFast after a fatal accident in one of the few VinFast vehicles driven in America killed a family of four.
Invalidated TeraWulf’s false claims of “zero-carbon bitcoin mining.” The company has completely rebranded, removing its once-prominent “zero-carbon” claims from its website, investor slides, and social media.
Determined that mining company Arcadium Lithium used significantly more water than advertised (and than its peers). The company later conceded in its annual sustainability report that its production method is more water-intensive, and confirmed our findings that its plant in Argentina accounts for more than 90% of that water consumption. Arcadium, trading near at all-time lows, announced it would be bought by Rio Tinto.
Highlighted that the telehealth company Hims & Hers Health was prescribing knock-off weight loss drugs through a regulatory loophole, from a sketchy supplier, often without patients consulting with a doctor. After our reporting, the company made safety certificates of analysis available to every customer, a win for patient safety. The FDA has since limited the sale of these knockoff drugs.
Brought attention to the Forest Stewardship Council granting a concession to a timber company near an Indigenous community in the Amazon. In September, the FSC suspended the certification — after images came out of the Indigenous community on the land being logged.
Validated the concerns of Namibian villagers that a nearby facility had potentially dangerous leaks and other risks to the environment — with satellite imagery showing runoff from a high-arsenic copper smelter. Dundee Precious Metals, which had struck a deal to sell the property to a Chinese miner, more than halved the price after Hunterbrook’s reporting was published.
Broke news that faulty steel from Universal Stainless contributed to a fatal military crash. One of the Gold Star families is now suing for wrongful death. Our investigation was unfortunately further validated by the death of a worker at a plant we’d flagged as dangerous.
Co-published with the International Partnership for Human Rights and Independent Anti-Corruption Commission on how Western technology ends up in Russian fighter jets and munitions used against civilians.
Exposed widespread defects and questionable sales practices of America’s two largest homebuilders.
Broke the news that B-2 jets had taken off from America en route to Iran — hours before any major outlet.

These investigations are just a few examples of our coverage, which spans from features to global news.

We are deeply inspired by the tools and values of both intrepid reporting and open-source intelligence (OSINT). We know that Hunterbrook Media may not be seen as traditional journalism, which is generally known for being dispassionate and indifferent to profitability.

We are proudly passionate. And we believe that good reporting can be good business — when you monetize insights instead of eyeballs and align profits with accuracy.

We’ve designed our policies inspired by institutions with the highest commitment to journalistic ethics. Our Advisory Board ranges from the first Public Editor of The New York Times to the founder of ProPublica. Our investors include the Ford Foundation; Emerson Collective, which owns The Atlantic; the Clementine Fund; a former US Solicitor General; mission-aligned venture capitalists including an Oscar-winning investigative documentarian; a former Chief Investment Officer of JPMorgan; the founder of Avenue Capital; a successful litigator; the founder of a leading healthcare investment firm; and other experienced investors. None of these investors get early access to our articles, which are published to everyone at once.

More information about our team is here.

Our Principles These guidelines are excerpted from the Company’s broader Policies and Procedures, which are provided to employees and freelancers when they join Hunterbrook. In the event of any discrepancy, the official Policies and Procedures govern. The excerpts presented here are for information purposes only and may not always reflect the most current version of our internal policies.

What we do must always be ethical.

What we do must always be legal.

The following protocols are how we ensure our two core principles. These protocols have been informed by discussions with our Advisory Board — including the former Editor-in-Chief of the Wall Street Journal, the founder of ProPublica, the first Public Editor of the New York Times, and numerous reporters — as well as conversations with members of our internal and external legal teams who have worked at the highest levels of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We did not seek input on these protocols from our investors.

These policies are essential. The info in these pages will be the difference between succeeding at Hunterbrook and failing. Study it. Master it. And as ProPublica writes in its Code of Ethics: “The most important wisdom about dealing with these questions is: When in doubt, ask.”

Truth

We do not lie, embellish, or exaggerate. We aim to write exactly what we know — no more, no less.

We believe in honest reporting. The only way we will sustainably grow is if our reporting is trusted. Accuracy is imperative. Thatʼs why every line in every article of ours will be fact-checked rigorously, copy-edited, and given a final review by our editing and legal teams to ensure it meets our standards.

Intentionally inaccurate reporting is a fireable offense. Unintentional errors are a significant detriment to our mission.

Proof

We strive to tell readers not just what we know, but how we know it. That means attributing every new fact an article introduces — and being able to share its provenance. The only exception is anonymous sources (see policy below).

To whatever extent possible, we will also divulge the step-by-step process of our reporting in the article itself — often including a link to a methodology appendix, particularly when using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT).

Transparency

We donʼt just disclose our business model, we highlight it. Every article will emphasize our mission and will disclose the financial interests of Hunterbrook Capital based on our research, and/or whether we are in contact with law firms that are exploring litigation.

Preserve the Sanctity of Source Relationships

At Hunterbrook Media, we abide by the five traditional standards re: source relationships, adapted from the New York Times:

1) Financial Interactions: We donʼt pay sources, and we donʼt let sources pay us.

2) Identity Disclosure: Hunterbrook employees must fully disclose their roles and disclose that information may be shared with other Hunterbrook affiliates. The only exception is if you’re seeking info that is available to the general public, in which case you may not need to affirmatively disclose your role as a reporter.

3) Use of Anonymous Sources: Anonymous sources should be avoided unless they offer indispensable info with no alternative to obtain it. In these cases, we require that the source consents to have their identity disclosed to our Publisher and our General Counsel, as well as the direct editor when appropriate. Identities of sources granted anonymity will be kept confidential unless we are legally compelled to disclose by the court of final jurisdiction, the standard of The New York Times, or unless the source later decides to waive confidentiality.

4) Source Diversity: Strive to talk to diverse sources, representing a wide array of opinions about the topic at hand; we want to cover reporting from every angle, not just one perspective.

5) Conflicts of Interest: Any conflicts of interest must be disclosed, and in some cases may warrant a reporter’s recusal from a project.

In addition to the standard guardrails on source relationships, our unique model restricts our reporters in a critical way: When working on reporting that may be provided to Hunterbrook Capital, Media employees cannot engage with sources who are violating a fiduciary duty in order to speak with us (“insider sources”). At a high-level, if someone has to break a confidentiality agreement, employment agreement, or breach their duties of trust and confidence with a company, in order to talk with you, you should flag this issue with the Editor immediately.

When it comes to reporting that may be shared with Hunterbrook Capital, not using “inside sources” is, of course, the single biggest challenge of our reporting. It’s a big reason we are different from traditional reporting outlets. But with the rise of OSINT and the proliferation of Publicly Available Information (PAI), we believe important, meaningful reporting can be done without the help of a source inside a company.

To this end, Hunterbrook Media will be as accommodating as possible when it comes to purchasing relevant commercially-available data sets and tools that our reporters believe would help break a story. Itʼs our goal to become the most sophisticated OSINT reporting operation worldwide, as soon as possible.

Impact

The mission of our reporting at Hunterbrook Media is to make an impact — so as we are conducting investigations, we must always be considering which levers of change we are attempting to pull. Whether that is breaking stories with market relevance, uncovering scams so the victims can seek restitution, or highlighting practices ripe of regulatory intervention, our goal is not to identify an issue but attempt to rectify it.

This is not a secret mission. At Hunterbrook Media, we are proudly passionate about our values, about bringing accountability to under-scrutinized companies and visibility to under-covered regions of the world. Given the nature of our business model, we are up front about our passion for these causes rather than falsely claiming dispassion.

Truth Over Passion

If passion conflicts with the truth, the truth wins. And if that means we have to kill an article, even one that supports a cause we strongly believe in, then that’s a price we’re willing to pay to uphold our commitment to telling the truth.

Sunlight

Humans have a tendency to run away from darkness toward sunlight. At Hunterbrook Media, we do the reverse. When deciding where to focus our reporting, our first question will always be: What is inadequately covered?

Whether itʼs a region of the world that needs more breaking news coverage or a sector of companies that deserves more scrutiny, that is where we will go — to the stories shrouded in darkness.

No Clickbait, No Aggregation

We donʼt chase clicks. Our goal is to enlighten, not entertain. Focus on how much new info we can bring to light.

We also don’t aggregate.
Write what only you can write. As Matthew Winkler argues in The Bloomberg Way: “News is a surprise. What did we know today that we didn’t know yesterday? That question will offer guidance when deciding which facts to highlight.”

This doesnʼt mean our theses always need to be brand new or built on a scoop. Great reporting may weave together threads of existing articles into a unique contribution. But we will never release an article only summarizing work someone else has already done and we will never merely aggregate news. If it is a Hunterbrook story, it has to bring a fresh perspective that introduces visibility, accountability, or both.

Self-scrutiny

We are as rigorous about questioning ourselves as we are about investigating others. If you or anyone else on the team has questions about any aspect of what we do, weʼll face them head on. This includes questions about our Advisory Board, external partners, and any other collaborators. As one of our Advisors once wrote, “Somebody’s got to ombud the ombudsman.”

Diversity

Our strength lies in our diverse experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives, enabling us to see what others miss.

Every company benefits from diversity but that is especially true of a company whose mission is to better understand the world. That is why we will seek to have a team of researchers that reflects the diversity of regions, sectors, and issues we hope to cover. At Hunterbrook Media, this isn’t a nice-to-have from a values perspective; it’s a need-to-have from a mission perspective. And we will be uncompromising in upholding this commitment.

This extends to our sourcing: We want the full picture, from an appropriate range of people. We believe sharing just one perspective in our reporting is just as bad as sharing no perspective at all.

Hunterbrook Media employees and freelancers cannot play the stock market during the term of their contract. All full-time employees and freelancers are contractually obligated to keep their work with Hunterbrook confidential and agree not to buy, sell, or otherwise trade in any securities or financial instruments based on Hunterbrook’s confidential information for the duration of their time at Hunterbrook.

Stay Out of Politics – Within Reason

Nothing is apolitical. If employees want to attend a protest or make phone calls for a candidate, we will not stop them from doing so, as long as they conduct these matters in their personal capacity, rather than as an agent of Hunterbrook Media — and as long as this activity doesn’t interfere with their ability to report on their beat.

There is, however, one hard and fast rule when it comes to political engagement: No employees or freelancers of Hunterbrook Media can give money to, nor raise money for, a political candidate or election cause for the duration of their contract with Hunterbrook Media. (Yes: You can donate to 501(c)(3)s. No: You cannot donate to 501(c)(4)s.)

Respect the Boundaries between Hunterbrook Media and Hunterbrook Capital

Hunterbrook Capital will not interfere with the reporting of our newsroom — and our reporters must not interfere with the operations of Hunterbrook Capital. Itʼs essential for our culture that these two aspects of our organization maintain independence — and also enhances our Compliance. Importantly: Hunterbrook Media’s reporting may drive Hunterbrook Capital’s investments. Hunterbrook Capital’s investments must never drive Hunterbrook Media’s reporting.

Give Subjects a Chance to Respond

Whenever possible, we will give the subjects of our reporting an opportunity to respond to it, whether that is before or after we publish.

Plagiarism

A note on the use of AI

We recognize the value that the latest AI tools can provide as resources. We recommend using premium AI subscriptions to accelerate and enhance work. However we must also note the complexities AI may introduce into our researching and reporting process. 1) Directly copy/pasting the output of an AI chat tool is not the standard to which we wish to hold our writers. Do not rely on AI for final products. 2) We encourage reporters to leverage a “trust but verify” mindset when it comes to AI. Though AI has the ability to be a great resource, generated content is not always accurate. As previously stated, our business model has a low tolerance for inaccurate reporting, so please apply the same rigorous fact-checking methodology to any AI outputs that you would toward any other source.

Corrections

Weʼll go out of our way to avoid inaccuracies, but on occasion, we may make mistakes. When we do, we must correct them with urgency, contrition, and forthrightness — particularly if we got something wrong that altered the public’s understanding of a company or event.

The stakes of publishing inaccuracies at Hunterbrook Media are extremely high financially and reputationally — and consequences for errors will reflect that.

In general, abide by the axiom: “don’t do dumb shit.”

Be (a Little) Paranoid

With this in mind, bring the same “donʼt do dumb shit” ethic we advise on social media to all of your communications. Everything you write or use in your reporting could one day end up public. Before sending, imagine your Slacks will be on the front page of a newspaper. Data security is also a paramount priority.

A Note on Excellence

We don’t care when you do your work. We care about the quality of your work. The highest standards and the highest integrity. We will never compromise on either. We also care about you delivering compelling ideas, drafts, and products on time. At Hunterbrook Media, deadlines are not suggestions. They are promises.

One More Thing

These procedures and protocols are essential to follow — but they only have meaning if they are rigorously adhered to, day after day, week after week, year after year. Should you find yourself in a situation where two principles seem to conflict, don’t rely solely on your judgment. Instead, consult with team members, fellow reporters, and our advisors — and work together to figure out what is right.