“That’s why we’ve stopped and started and stopped and started,” he said. “Figuring out a model is really hard because we don’t want to be just a dependency of Pierre. We could — he has so much money — but I think he wants to create a new model of journalism, and that only works if it becomes in some way self-sustaining.”

In his view, oxygen and audience will find those that it should.

“No one, not The New York Times, no one, is entitled to an audience,” he said, looking across the table and smiling. “The ability to thrive is directly dependent upon your ability to convince people that you’re providing something valuable and unique.”

He praised Mr. Omidyar, who he says is just trying to level the field with legacy media.

“There’s a lot of distrust of billionaires and the oligarchic model,” he said. “People don’t believe that you’re really going to get to be journalistically independent. But you can’t complain that there’s not serious investigative journalism against big corporate and governmental outlets and then at the same time oppose every single model that lets you have the kind of funding that you need.”

As a personal matter, his new approach is not that much different than the way it has always been.

“I began by writing 4,000-word posts about very arcane, complicated issues at a time when you were supposed to post two paragraphs,” he said. “That was supposed to drive everybody away, but my audience just kept growing and growing. It worked because there was a passion and a conviction to it that is often missing in mainstream coverage.”

Which is to say that Mr. Greenwald likes being part of building something larger with more resources — as long as he is free to wake up and use the digital equivalent of a pair of sticks and a rock to get his point out there, right away. Regardless of how it’s published, he loves pushing the button on a post that is going to push people’s buttons.

“It’s funny,” he said. “I’m working with a Silicon Valley technologist who became the 100th-richest person in the world through his understanding of programming, but half the time we can’t communicate on the telephone because my Internet isn’t working or my phone is out. It’s an irony, but it’s also a kind of balance for me.”

That balance includes more than a dozen dogs — Sheeva, Sylvestre, Mabel, I lost track of the names. I pointed out that he is nearing cat-lady status, engulfed by his need to rescue. No, he said, “we have a limit, so I am not like a cat lady.”