[1] The company did not want to be too reliant on social media distribution, but instead aimed to reach a "smart, influential" readership who would visit its website directly.

U.S. broadcast television company TEGNA signed on as a new investor, having earlier announced a content partnership as part of the investment in February 2018.

Later that year in September, the website laid off two full-time staff writers and also planned to move its office into a co-working space.

A Study Hall member told Observer, "we don’t want management to think that it’s OK to fire their employees and rely on us to pick up the slack."

[13] On March 27, 2019, it was announced that Bryan Goldberg and his company Bustle Digital Media had bought The Outline.