NOTUS Rebrands as The Washington Sun After Trademark Dispute

Key Points

• NOTUS has officially rebranded as The Washington Sun, with the new name taking effect on September 9, 2026.
• Editor-in-chief Tim Grieve said the new name reflects the publication’s broader focus on Washington politics, local news and sports.
• The newsroom has expanded from 45 staff members at the start of 2026 to 110, according to reporting by The New York Times.
• The enlarged team includes several former Washington Post journalists, including Dana Milbank, Tom Sietsema, Paul Kane, Kadia Goba, Jeff Stein, Thomas Boswell and Dave Sheinin.
• The publication plans to introduce a $9.99-a-month paywall, while keeping its newsletters free.
• The Washington Sun has reached an exclusive content-licensing agreement with Capital Weather to provide daily Washington-area weather forecasts.
• The rebrand follows NOTUS’s abandoned plan to become The Star, which was halted after a trademark lawsuit filed by The Washington Star Company.
• A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on June 2 preventing NOTUS from proceeding with the planned “The Star” rebrand while the dispute continued.
• The parties agreed on June 18 to resolve the dispute, with each side paying its own costs and legal fees, after which NOTUS abandoned the Star name.

Evening Washington News (EW) September 9, 2026 – The news organisation formerly known as NOTUS has officially launched under the name The Washington Sun, completing a rebranding process that followed a trademark dispute over its earlier proposal to become The Star. The organisation says the new name reflects a significant expansion beyond its original focus on national politics and policy into Washington local news, sports, food and weather. Editor-in-chief Tim Grieve said the publication wanted “Washington” to be more clearly represented in its name as the newsroom expanded its coverage of the city and surrounding area.

Why has NOTUS changed its name to The Washington Sun?

As reported by Katie Robertson of The New York Times on September 8, the rebranding is designed to reflect the publication’s wider editorial ambitions. Robertson reported that Grieve viewed the name as a way of signalling that the organisation covers both political Washington and local Washington.

The change marks a substantial shift from the identity associated with NOTUS, an abbreviation of News of the United States. The organisation initially concentrated on government, public policy and national political reporting.

According to Tim Grieve, writing in the publication’s own September 9 launch announcement, NOTUS had grown substantially after the organisation identified an opportunity to increase Washington-focused reporting. The Washington Sun said it had more than doubled the size of its newsroom in six months.

The publication now says its coverage extends from the White House and Congress to the Wilson Building, Northwest Stadium and Washington neighbourhoods. Its stated coverage also includes local sports, food and weather alongside national politics and policy.

How large is The Washington Sun newsroom?

The Washington Sun is launching with a newsroom of 110 employees, compared with 45 staff members at the beginning of 2026, according to Robertson’s reporting for The New York Times.

The expansion includes journalists recruited from The Washington Post, following cuts at the newspaper earlier in the year.

Among those who have joined are columnist Dana Milbank, food critic Tom Sietsema, congressional reporters Paul Kane and Kadia Goba, economics reporter Jeff Stein, and sports journalists including Thomas Boswell and Dave Sheinin. TheWrap’s A.J. Katz reported that at least 28 former Washington Post journalists were part of the new newsroom.

The Washington Sun’s own launch material also lists local reporters including Martin Austermuhle, Jenny Gathright, Michael Brice-Saddler, Zara Norman and Shamira Muhammad, while identifying Matt K. Lewis and Thomas Boswell among its columnists.

The staffing expansion is therefore central to the organisation’s attempt to broaden its coverage. Rather than remaining primarily a national politics publication, The Washington Sun is establishing teams covering the Washington metropolitan area and its sports community.

What role did Washington Post staff cuts play in the expansion?

The expansion comes after The Washington Post reduced parts of its local and sports journalism operation.

As reported by Katie Robertson of The New York Times, Grieve linked The Washington Sun’s broader editorial strategy to changes at The Washington Post and the reduction of metro coverage.

The Washington Sun’s leadership has described the change in the local media market as an opportunity to increase reporting on Washington itself.

Grieve told The New York Times that he believed there was demand for local and sports journalism that had become less available following changes at The Washington Post and other local newspapers. His comments were specifically presented by Robertson as part of the explanation for the expansion.

Dana Milbank, one of the former Washington Post journalists now working for The Washington Sun, also addressed the expansion in a launch column. Milbank wrote that at least 28 former Post employees had joined the organisation and identified a number of journalists who had moved across to the new publication.

The recruitment therefore represents both an expansion in staffing and a transfer of experienced Washington journalism talent into a newer digital organisation.

What new coverage will The Washington Sun provide?

The Washington Sun has expanded into several areas that were not central to NOTUS’s original identity.

The organisation says it now has dedicated local reporting covering Washington politics, neighbourhoods, sports and other metropolitan issues. Its sports operation is particularly significant, with the publication saying it has more local sports reporters than any other Washington-area publication.

Food coverage is also being led by Tom Sietsema, formerly the restaurant critic at The Washington Post. The sports team includes journalists with experience covering professional and local athletics.

The organisation has also established a weather operation through an exclusive content-licensing agreement with Capital Weather. The service was previously associated with The Washington Post under the name Capital Weather Gang. The Washington Sun said it would use the agreement to publish a daily Washington-area forecast.

This combination of political, local, sports, food and weather reporting represents a broader general-interest model than the publication’s original national policy focus.

How much will The Washington Sun subscription cost?

The Washington Sun plans to introduce a $9.99 monthly subscription for access to its website, according to Robertson’s reporting in The New York Times. The publication has said its newsletters will remain free.

The move introduces a paid digital model at the same time as the organisation expands its newsroom.

The subscription strategy will therefore be part of the publication’s effort to support a significantly larger reporting operation. The Washington Sun has said it is backed financially by Robert Allbritton, the founder of Politico, and that it also receives revenue from advertising, sponsored newsletters, podcasts and events, as well as paid subscriptions.

The publication’s own description states that its editorial decisions remain independent from its financial supporters.

Why did NOTUS abandon its planned name The Star?

The Washington Sun is the second rebranding attempt by NOTUS during 2026.

NOTUS had previously announced plans to change its name to The Star. However, that proposal became the subject of a trademark dispute after media executive Dovid Efune announced plans to revive The Washington Star, a newspaper that had ceased publication in 1981.

According to Katie Robertson of The New York Times, Efune subsequently filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against NOTUS.

The dispute reached federal court in Virginia.

Court records show that The Washington Star Company, LLC filed the case against NOTUS Media, LLC on May 28, 2026. The plaintiff asserted claims including federal trademark infringement, false designation of origin and unfair competition, as well as related common-law claims.

What did the federal judge decide about The Star rebrand?

On June 2, 2026, US District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. issued a temporary restraining order concerning the proposed rebrand.

The court order prevented NOTUS from launching its new domain name, advertising the rebrand or otherwise proceeding with the “The Star” identity while the court considered the request for further injunctive relief. The order also restricted the use of certain Star-related names in new materials.

The court’s written decision stated that the temporary order was intended to preserve the status quo while the trademark dispute was considered. The court specifically referred to the potential for public confusion between the publications.

The court also ordered the plaintiff to post a $100,000 bond in connection with the temporary restraining order and scheduled further proceedings concerning the dispute.

The legal action disrupted NOTUS’s planned launch under The Star name.

How much did NOTUS say the failed rebrand could cost?

In court documents cited by The New York Times, NOTUS said abandoning its planned launch would result in losses of at least $2.5 million.

Those losses were linked to items including a planned relaunch event, prepaid advertising and sponsorship revenue, according to Robertson’s September 8 report.

The figure was presented as NOTUS’s position in the legal proceedings rather than as an independently established financial loss.

On June 18, the parties agreed to resolve the dispute, with each side agreeing to pay its own legal costs and fees. NOTUS then abandoned the proposed Star name.

Why was The Washington Sun selected as the replacement name?

Grieve told The New York Times that The Washington Sun had already been among the names considered by the organisation.

The publication delayed announcing the replacement name until it could launch the new identity alongside a redesigned website, according to Robertson’s report.

The Washington Sun subsequently explained the name in its own launch announcement. Grieve wrote that the organisation wanted Washington to be central to the publication’s identity and used the idea of a sun or daylight as part of the explanation for the choice.

The new branding therefore combines the geographic focus of “Washington” with a separate identity from the disputed Star name.

What does the rebrand mean for Washington’s digital news market?

The launch places a substantially larger digital newsroom into Washington’s local media environment.

The Washington Sun is seeking to combine national political reporting with local journalism, sports, food and weather. The organisation’s expansion has also brought a number of experienced journalists into a single newsroom, including at least 28 former Washington Post employees, according to TheWrap’s A.J. Katz.

For readers, the most immediate change is therefore not simply the name. The publication is offering a wider range of coverage and introducing a paid subscription model at the same time.

The organisation has also retained a free newsletter offering, meaning that not all of its distribution is moving behind the paywall.

Its launch statement says the publication intends to serve Washington residents, people working in policymaking and readers elsewhere who follow developments in the capital.

What is the background to The Washington Sun’s launch?

NOTUS was established in 2023 by media entrepreneur Robert Allbritton, who was also a co-founder of Politico. The organisation initially concentrated on national government and policy coverage.

The publication’s development took place against wider changes in the Washington media market. Its leadership subsequently expanded the organisation and recruited journalists with experience in local, national, economic, food and sports journalism.

The proposed Star rebrand became a legal issue in May 2026 after The Washington Star Company brought its trademark case against NOTUS. The federal court’s June 2 order temporarily prevented NOTUS from proceeding with the proposed name while the dispute was being considered.

The dispute was resolved on June 18, according to The New York Times, after which NOTUS abandoned the Star identity. The organisation then proceeded with The Washington Sun name and launched the new publication on September 9.

The publication’s own account says its newsroom had grown to 110 people by launch, more than twice its size at the start of the year.

How could the development affect Washington readers and local news audiences?

The immediate effect for Washington-area audiences is an increase in the number of journalists and subject areas being covered by the organisation formerly known as NOTUS.

The Washington Sun is entering the local market with dedicated reporting on politics, communities and sports, while also adding food and weather coverage. Its agreement with Capital Weather is intended to provide daily forecasts for the Washington area.

For readers who previously followed NOTUS primarily for national politics and policy, the rebrand represents an expansion of the publication’s editorial scope. For local audiences, the significance will depend on the extent to which the new teams maintain sustained coverage across Washington’s communities, institutions and sports organisations.

The introduction of the $9.99 monthly paywall also changes how readers will access the publication’s website. Newsletters, however, are expected to remain free, providing a separate route for readers to receive its journalism.

The longer-term effect will depend on audience uptake, subscription performance, the sustainability of the enlarged newsroom and the publication’s ability to maintain its expanded reporting operation. Those outcomes cannot yet be established from the September launch alone.

The rebrand nevertheless marks a significant organisational change: a publication that began as NOTUS, focused largely on national politics and policy, has entered a new phase as The Washington Sun, with a 110-person newsroom and a much broader Washington-focused editorial operation.