Politico Soon To Have Even More Politico!

Today Politico announced that, contrary to recent trends in print media, it will be expanding following the election, both online and in print. Per Richard Perez-Pena in the New York Times, it will "add reporters, editors, Web engineers and other employees; expand circulation of its newspaper edition in Washington; and print more often." Pretty impressive in this media climate! How will it do that?

Simple — by catering to the kind of inside-the-Beltway fat cats that John McCain loves to hate:

Politico draws a vast readership outside the Beltway, but its finances depend almost entirely on a small audience within a mile of the Capitol. The bulk of its revenue, in print and online, comes from ads placed by interest groups hoping to influence official Washington. That business slows in election years and picks up when a new administration and new Congress take office.

Seems like Politico is in great shape then: Focus on pushing the brand and capitalizing on this crazy election season, then hunker down to make some actual money when the traffic drops (but I do have to say that the NYT's characterization of Politico as "a little-known start-up company" was something of a misnomer, considering all the advance publicity for the venture, including a preview story by the NYT). Gawker's Alex Pareene tut-tuts Politico a little, noting that D.C. already has two papers on the Hill (The Hill and Roll Call), and saying that Politico still feels like a vanity project — but it's sort of hard to argue that after the success of its past year-and-three-quarters, particularly its rise to national prominence in a way that the local Hill papers have not.

Co-founder Jim VandeHei told FishbowlNY's Glynnis MacNicol that Nielson put the site's numbers at 3.6 million unique visitors last month but that "our internal data shows a much higher number" (he did not elaborate). He did say that he anticipated a post-election drop-off, but not a big one given "the historic nature of the outcome (either the first African-American president or first female VP)." To that end, they'll launch "POLITICO 44" — a new page to cover the new prez.

One interesting strategy on the part of Politico has been providing D.C. reportage for local papers around the country, functioning as a de facto D.C. bureau. (Cf. American Prospect.). This was apparent to anyone walking around the two conventions, because the Politico logo was splashed atop the banners of the Denver Post and the St. Paul Pioneer-Press . Said VandeHei:

It is sad and true that many newspapers are being forced to pull back or eliminate their Washington coverage. John Harris and I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of journalism and talking with newspaper editors about ways we can work together to provide coverage in our core areas. We partnered with the Denver Post and St. Paul Pioneer-Press for the conventions - and both efforts were a huge success, in our eyes. We recently launched a new experiment called the Politico Network that allows newspapers to use some of our content. In exchange, we get the rights to sell some of their web advertising inventory. It successful, this would allow POLITICO to spread its content around the country and make some money for the newspaper partners and POLITICO.

He also revealed the secret to media success in a changing journalistic landscape:

John and I do think there is a very robust future for niche sites online. The new media formula is pretty simple: If you can build a desirable audience that a class of advertisers wants to reach, you have a darn good chance at success.

Aha, so that's how it works!

Politico Intends To Expand After Presidential Race Ends [NYT]
Four Questions For Politico's Jim VandeHei [FishbowlNY]
'Politico' Will Expand, Save Political Journalism As We Know It [Gawker]
Meeting of the Minds: The Denver Post and Politico [FishbowlNY]

Pic shamelessly pilfered from Glynnie. Don't tell her, she can beat me up.