Monday, September 22, 2008

Politico plans post-election expansion

Politico.com, one of the hottest blogs for political junkies, is going against conventional wisdom and expanding its press after the election season is over.

Our goal is simple: We want to offer readers the fastest, smartest, most authoritative coverage of Washington in the nation, period, said publisher Robert Allbritton. These are important times and we plan to unleash the best reporters in the country on the most important story: how the new Congress and President govern in this historic period.

Politico's web page, Politico 44, will debut Nov. 5. Other ambitious goals include additional reporters, editors, Web engineers and other employees, and the unthinkable prospect- more newspaper print editions.

The site's rapid expansion during the past 20 months can be credited to the historical story lines on each party ticket, as well as Politico's highly-credentialed staff, which includes former editors and writers from he Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine and The New York Times.

Politico’s corps of reporters and editors will grow to more than 50 from 39, and the overall staff to 105 or more, from 85.

A few distinguishing facts about the Politico paper, which will be printed four days per week when Congress is in session.

• It is hand delivered to every office and top staffer
• it will become the only Capitol Hill paper to be delivered to every top White House official as well as senior members of the cabinet and top departmental officials.
   

The most important question here is a simple one: Why would the strive for growth after the peak of political interest throughout the country?Well, according to Jim VandeHei, executive editor and co-founder of Politico, the biggest story comes after Nov. 4, and the redecorating for the White House begins.

After the election, it is to create a dedicated White House reporting team, headed by Mike Allen, its senior political reporter. No matter who wins the election, it’s going to be a captivating story as they govern, After the election, I anticipate some dip in our audience, but for our business model, it doesn’t really matter.We anticipate a nice surge on the revenue side.

In my opinion, Politico is taking a huge risk here, because we all know how short the American attention span is. The capitol hill crowd and lobbyists may stay on as loyal readers, but vast majority of Americans will go back to their normal, everyday lives a few months into the new presidency. Who knows, maybe Politico will prove me wrong.

By Matt O'Hern at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

Post a Comment