Politicker Joins the Fray
Important Details: It’s an audacious goal: cover politics from neighborhood battles to statehouse conflicts in each and every state of the union. That’s the recently announced plan for Politicker. Politicker is a business line of Observer Media Group, best known as publisher of the cheeky New York Observer weekly. So far, there are eight Politickers, each linked to each other, but each with its own url – the state postal code added to Politicker, as in PolitickerNJ.com. States currently covered are: New Jersey, Nevada, Maine, Oregon, Maryland, Arizona, Vermont and Colorado, with Washington, Kentucky and New Hampshire slated to launch by February 1. Politcker.com brands itself “Inside Politics for Political Insiders.”
Newly appointed as national managing editor is James Pindell, who leaves his post as national politics blogger for the Boston Globe, and brings a respected journalistic pedigree along. Each site hosts a column from a veteran of that state’s politics, who writes daily under the name of “Wally Edge”, which is a pseudonym, and offers a mix of links to political stories in the state’s newspapers and to prominent political blogs. And each site takes a deep and wide purview, trying to cover politics from town to statewide. Pindell says the business plans calls for hiring 75-100 reporters across the nation.
“All politics is local and the Politicker.com model has taken that mantra to a new level,” said Pindell. “Politicker.com makes politics and the political process accessible to people from all walks of life. It’s the equalizer that allows anyone to get the ‘inside baseball’ on the business of government and how politics gets done.
Implications: Politicker’s announced plan is an ambitious one, and one with odd timing. The US is well into the most energetic election cycle it has seen for many years, and political interest is notoriously episodic. While political junkies may have their appetites whetted, a broader audience will dissipate before year’s end. Consequently, Politicker runs the risk of missing a wave.
The size and nature of the political market is certainly an issue. The insider’s market has long been a narrow niche one, proven out over years by newsletter publishers, and tested by such products as McClatchy’s Sacramento Bee once-paid newsletter “Capitol Alert”.
Outsell believes that the announcement offers a number of takeaways for news publishers:
- Politicker’s first impression is one of “many columns,” a traditional journalism feel. One web lesson in process is to figure out how to let the audience in, how to “Web 2.0” a site. That’s especially valuable — and difficult to execute — with grassroots politics. But it promises a far greater audience and greater engagement.
- Politicker also seems to be text-heavy. One of the highlights of this political season has been web video; it’s become part of the political landscape and needs to be site-forward.
- Political sites offer wonderful, potential opportunities for research. Archives are key — and another audience attraction.
- Popularity with advertisers may be tough, until demographic and behavioral data is obtained. This is a “general news” audience, until proven otherwise, and that’s been one of the lowest-performing.
- Politicker faces a bevy of competition. On a public affairs level, fast-growing BlogNetNews (see Insights, 2 July 2007, Blog Net News Shows How to Corral Top-End Politics Blogs) has quadrupled unique visitors in six months, and offers a daily publisher partnership program (with Knoxville News Sentinel, for example). The national Politico, staffed by big media pros, is getting great traction. And, of course, many partisan blogs are out there, drawing readers.
- For traditional publishers, Politicker is a new warning shot. Local dailies’ primacy in local and state politics — one of last bastions not otherwise attacked by internet competition — is now in play. Top talent is increasingly tempted to leave motherships taking on water for the shiny new rafts being launched. The lesson is a clear one: politics, too, is a niche, and needs to be approached that way in content creation and in advertising.