Four old-media veterans may have solved the future of news with the Politico Web site, whose audience of six million obsessives and insiders consumes–and feeds–a real-time download of power data. The twist? Politico’s print version is what’s helped make it profitable. Full Story »
Posted by Joey Baker - via Jay Rosen, John Bracken, Publish2 (Politics)
A biography of Politico. For such a long article it keeps you reading and wanting more, it is not an article to put down and come back to. Very impressive. Politico is the new Washington star.
CNN changed the nature of politics and political reporting by compressing the time it took for something to happen, for it to become widely known, and for newsmakers and the public to react to it (i.e., the news cycle) to half a day—whereas the newspaper news cycle, from next-day publication to day-after reaction, was 48 hours, and network television’s news cycle, from one day’s evening news to the next day’s evening news, was 24 hours. Politico brings the news cycle down to about 15 or 20 minutes.
If they ad an email notification option look out; their hits will skyrocket.
Or, put another way, much of the country may still find politics to be an execrable and mind-numbing proposition, but Politico has built a far-flung network of actual and armchair political professionals who find it not just exhilarating but habit-forming. They’re on the edge of their seats. Politics may not be the national sport again, but it’s a niche sport with the right audience.
Politico is on my second row on Google’s Chrome.
Politico is such a Washington-centric, politics-obsessed business that, befitting the culture and true values of the town, its entrepreneurs won’t make much money for themselves beyond their salaries—nor does it ever really seem to have occurred to them that they might (or should). For them, as for anyone who is anybody in Washington, money is not the best currency; information is—which they control more and more of with Politico.
See money is not always the number one driver.
One can only guess how many of the "In the Gateway" people read Politico and may even keep it as their Home Page. I loved reading this and learning Politico's history. I started reading it very soon after it came to life and still do; often.