Founding

Mensch had first been exploring the idea of creating a blog under News Corp for about three years before it was pitched to Dow Jones CEO Will Lewis as a "libertarian Huffington Post". News Corp CEO Robert Thompson signed off on the project in late 2015.^[7][8]

The website was announced in February 2016. It launched officially on April 20, 2016,^[2] headed by British journalist Louise Mensch and television executive Noah Kotch.^[9]

Miles Goslett was hired as the site's UK editor in January 2016, prior to the site's launch.^[7][8] By Heat Street's seventh month of publication, it reported 8 million unique users to the site.^[7][10]

Mensch left Heat Street in mid-December 2016 and launched her own political blog, Patribotics, in January 2017, stating that she prefers the free hand self-publishing provides.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Content

The site, which was housed under News Corp.'s Dow Jones & Company, used a more informal tone than other sites run by the company, such as The Wall Street Journal.^[7][8] The Washington Times' Jennifer Harper described the site as follows: "The politics here are right-leaning and libertarian-minded; the publication also covers culture wars, commentary, technology, celebrity, business and assorted lifestyle matters."^[15]

In 2016, Mensch said Heat Street was defined less by politics than by "culture wars". The site has run articles sympathetic to Gamergate. Speaking to Politico, Mensch said the gaming community has been "maligned".^[8]

In December 2016, Mensch and the James Madison Project filed suit against five intelligence and law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice's National Security Division and the Department of Homeland Security over withheld documents detailing evidence of Russian interference in the presidential election.^[16]