Via the Globe and Mail
Launched early in 2007, Politico.com has demonstrated that a single-topic news site can rank with general-news giants such as CNN
It was a bold incursion by a political upstart into a campaign that should have been dominated by established Washington insiders.
But with a clear vision, unique voice, funny name and a website dedicated to all things Washington, Politico.com has managed to insert itself into the conversation surrounding this year’s U.S. presidential race.
“Our name has been made for being playful, having an edge but also doing quality, very traditional journalism,” Bill Nichols, Politico’s managing editor, said yesterday. “We’re such a hybrid, we’re very high tech but under-girding that is very old-fashioned reporting.”
The site launched in January of 2007, a debut that also came with the introduction of a paper version distributed only in Washington.
With a staff lured from such big-name media outlets as The Washington Post, The New York Times and Time magazine, Politico quickly made its presence known, online and off, ignoring the traditional all-opinion or news-aggregate models of other political websites in favour of actually breaking news.
Last week, it revealed that the Republican Party had spent $150,000 (U.S.) on a designer wardrobe for vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, a story that still lingers in the ever-changing campaign narrative.
In September, the site was ranked by Nielsen Online in the Top 10 newspaper websites, with 4.6 million unique visitors that month, no mean feat for a paper that employs 85 people and has a print run of just 26,000. It’s a compelling new model of niche journalism, demonstrating that a single-topic news site can rank with the established general-news behemoths such as CNN and the British Broadcasting Corp., at least while the leadership of the free world hangs in the balance.
But Politico believes its popularity will survive after Tuesday’s election and has plans to expand, even as the craze for political news likely subsides.
“I think everyone’s going to see their numbers go down. It’s been historic viewership,” Mr. Nichols said.
Founded by Robert Allbritton, the thirtysomething scion of Allbritton Communications, a collection of family-owned TV stations, Politico is different in that it covers only politics, dedicating itself to Congress, the current election, lobbying and advocacy.
After the election, Politico hopes to add the White House to its area of expertise, covering the new president.
At a time when other news outlets are scaling back their endeavours, Politico will hire more reporters and editors, and increase its print run to 32,000. Currently, the paper version of Politico appears in Washington Tuesday through Thursday, but a Monday edition is in the works.
Mr. Allbritton launched the venture with cash to spare and a willingness to lose it, but also some bold ideas about how to make the all-politics-all-the-time model work.
In these days of Internet dominance, the paper version is where Politico makes its money. It sells advertisements to lobbyists and government contractors interested in catching the eye of lawmakers, members of Congress and political insiders to whom the paper is distributed free.
It is not yet turning a profit, but expects to be in the black by next year, well ahead of schedule.
Profit, influence and access are not three words that tend to go together in the world of online journalism. But the site and the paper are run by editor-in-chief John Harris and executive editor Jim VendeHei, both formerly of The Washington Post, and Mr. Nichols, who covered the Clinton administration for USA Today. It employs such well-connected writers as Mike Allen, who was recruited from Time.
Politico has prioritized PR, hiring a staff dedicated to getting reporters and editors on radio and TV.
But Politico’s reputation has also been built by stories that proved its investigative mettle.
In November of 2007, reporter Ben Smith revealed that security details employed during Rudy Giuliani’s affair with the woman who is now his wife had been paid through various agencies, making records of their activities harder to find.
“That was a real bombshell and I think the Giuliani people would acknowledge privately that it was the beginning of the end of his campaign,” Mr. Nichols said.
In the spring, with the Democratic primary battle still raging between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Politico published the first piece stating that the New York senator could not win.
“She was still in the race and it was her total right to remain in the race, but if you did the math it was not going to happen,” Mr. Nichol said. “Everyone else had been skating around that.”
Politico also broke the story that Republican candidate John McCain was unable to remember how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.
The site has also had misses.
Mr. Smith erroneously reported that John Edwards was withdrawing from the Democratic presidential race because of his wife’s cancer recurrence, a story he had based on a single source.
Elizabeth Skewes, author of Message Control: How News is Made on the Presidential Campaign Trail, said sites like Politico reflect a new information model based on a single topic, where people do not have to wade through a lot of pages to find what they are looking for.
She believes the site will survive after the election, because it has become a habit for political junkies.
kNow Note: Thanks for the link Brigitte, your finger’s on the pulse
