Hi there, friend —
My name is Jeff Rotkoff. I’m the publisher of The Barbed Wire.
In 1995, my dad, then-stationed at the Pentagon while our family lived in Northern Virginia, received orders to move to Fort Hood. I was 16 years old, and I’m pretty sure I’d never set foot in the Lone Star State. But as we say, “Home is where the Army sends you,” and Texas became mine.
I’m a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin (Hook ‘em) and I’ve lived in Copperas Cove, Waco, and Austin. I’ve spent time in every corner of our state — from El Paso to Texarkana, and from Denton to the Rio Grande Valley. My wife is a Texan, my kids are Texans, hell, I’ve got the Davis Mountains tattooed on my ribcage. I love barbacoa and Big Red, Robert Earl Keen and Recover, Tim Duncan and Vince Young. Texas, forever.
Professionally, my background has mostly been working in politics. And for the majority of my career, I’ve worked in support of progressive causes. I’ve always found myself motivated by a desire for what’s best for middle-class families like my own, and I’ve worked to elect candidates who fight for that vision. I’ve never shied away from defeating candidates of either party who were greedy, corrupt, and bullies.
I’ve worked with Democrats, non-partisan elected officials, and with more Republicans than you might expect. I’ve worked in the U.S. Congress and the Texas Legislature, as a private consultant, and with organized labor. I’ve advised businesses on communications, branding, and advertising; and I’ve served on nonprofit boards. I’ve coached youth sports and for years I played in a bipartisan band, the Bad Precedents — the official band of the Texas House of Representatives. On the weekends, you’re likely to find me crimping the limestone cliffs of the Austin Greenbelt or jamming my fingers into sharp pockets while climbing at McKinney Falls State Park.
Along with my business-side colleagues, David Cohen and Billy Begala — each of whom also have backgrounds in progressive politics, non-profit leadership, startups, and private business — at The Barbed Wire, my job is to make sure that Olivia Messer and her second-to-none editorial team have the resources and infrastructure they need to produce kick-ass journalism every day. That means I help raise money, manage our budget, engage with advertisers, produce contracts and invoices, and get folks paid. I’ve spent the better part of two years learning everything I can about what makes a good publisher and a healthy newsroom. I’m deeply indebted to the many journalists and publishers who spent countless hours looking over our business model and budget, and teaching me the difference between developmental and line edits.
At The Barbed Wire, we’re out to build a place that values all Texans, holds the powerful to account, and tells great stories about the people building this amazing state. I believe in The Barbed Wire because the hard truth is that the future of Texas is uncertain — in fact, it’s scary. The people in power in Texas have never cared less about the lives of average Texans.
But too often, our media compounds the problem by placing extremist misinformation on a typical left-right spectrum that no longer applies, rocketing radical ideas through the Overton window. An enormous right-wing funding effort has led to a proliferation of far-right outlets giving them a megaphone that drowns out the truth through sheer volume. And an increasingly disengaged populace tunes out of legacy “hard” news outlets as young people grow skeptical of media and political institutions.
That’s why we founded The Barbed Wire. We are working to speak to Texas’s young, growing, diverse, and politically dynamic population in ways legacy media has not, and to introduce their much-needed voices to the state’s ecosystem.
It’s an honor to support the work of our outstanding editorial team at The Barbed Wire — I hope you’ll join us.
Jeff
