---
aliases:
- The Washington Examiner
category: Private Organization
created: 2026-09-23
location: Washington, D.C., USA
relations:
- fn: 1
  reverse: true
  start: 2004
  type: owned
  with: '[[Philip Anschutz]]'
- fn: 1
  reverse: true
  start: 2004
  type: owned
  with: '[[Clarity Media Group]]'
start: 2005
summary: Washington political publication built from suburban Journal Newspapers,
  which Philip Anschutz bought through his new Clarity Media Group in 2004 and relaunched
  as a free daily in 2005.
tags:
- Organization
- Media
- Journalism
- WashingtonDC
- Anschutz
updated: 2026-09-23
---

The Washington Examiner is a political publication in [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/) owned by the Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz. It grew out of Journal Newspapers Inc., the Alexandria, Virginia publisher of the *Northern Virginia Journal*, the *Prince George's Journal* and the *Montgomery Journal*, which Anschutz bought in 2004.[^1] It launched as a free paper in 2005.[^2]

### Anschutz purchase

On September 30, 2004 Anschutz, a founder of Qwest Communications and an investor in D.C. United, announced the purchase of Journal Newspapers through Clarity Media Group, "a newly created investment arm" headed by the former Denver Post publisher Ryan McKibben and the paper's former chief financial officer Frederick Anderson. Clarity did not disclose financial terms. Anschutz also owned the *San Francisco Examiner,* a majority stake in Regal Entertainment Group and four Major League Soccer teams. The three suburban dailies had a combined circulation of 115,000 and had passed through several owners and heavy layoffs; Clarity said it would add "regional, national, and world news" while keeping the free tabloid format. McKibben said: "I'm not going to say the Washington Times or The Washington Post is our competition."[^1]

### Examiner chain

Anschutz had bought the *San Francisco Examiner* for 11 million dollars in 2004 and extended its "Eagle" masthead to his other Examiner papers. By June 2009 the *Washington Examiner* distributed 260,000 copies on Thursdays, with advertisers including Macy's, Southwest Airlines and Citibank, and Clarity had closed its *Baltimore Examiner*. That month the sale of *The Weekly Standard* to Anschutz was announced; Dirk Smillie of *[Forbes](/organizations/forbes/)* wrote that the magazine lost an estimated 5 million dollars a year on a circulation of 80,000.[^2]

### Coverage of effective altruism

In November 2025 the Examiner reporter Robert Schmad published "Effective Altruism-linked nonprofit placed fellows in key government offices, secured influence," on the [Horizon Institute for Public Service](/organizations/horizon-institute-for-public-service/), followed in April 2026 by "Documents show how a tech-connected nonprofit shaped Biden-era AI policy."[^3][^4] In December 2025 *[Semafor](/organizations/semafor/)* noted a critical Examiner piece on the donor ties of the [Tarbell Center for AI Journalism](/organizations/tarbell-center-for-ai-journalism/).[^5]

[^1]: Shin, Annys. "Anschutz Purchases Journal Newspapers." *The Washington Post,* October 1, 2004, p. E02. http://web.archive.org/web/20180128120921/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63529-2004Sep30.html
[^2]: Smillie, Dirk. "The Stealth Media Mogul." *Forbes,* June 29, 2009. https://www.forbes.com/2009/06/28/anschutz-weekly-standard-business-media-examiner.html
[^3]: Schmad, Robert. "Effective Altruism-linked nonprofit placed fellows in key government offices, secured influence." *Washington Examiner,* November 6, 2025. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3874805/effective-altruism-linked-nonprofit-placed-fellows-in-key-government-offices-secured-influence/
[^4]: Schmad, Robert. "Documents show how a tech-connected nonprofit shaped Biden-era AI policy." *Washington Examiner,* April 17, 2026. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/4532389/
[^5]: Tani, Max. "AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms." *Semafor,* December 7, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms