When President Bush gives his State of the Union address on January 23rd, a new political website anchored by a pair of veteran reporters will debut at ThePolitico.com.
It won’t be a pure Internet play, though, according to a New York Times report on the venture. The Capitol Leader, a thrice-weekly newspaper published during Congressional sessions, will be renamed to match the website and represent the offline voice of The Politico.
Time Magazine’s Mike Allen and Bloomberg’s chief political correspondent Roger Simon will be part of The Politico, along with other newsprint veterans. The report noted they plan to hire “15 or 20 energetic journalists in their 20s and 30s who are building their careers.” The cynically-minded in the journalism trade (believe it or not they exist) probably read this as “seeking cheap labor.”
The money comes from Allbritton Communications, part of Perpetual Corporation. Scuttlebutt in the blogosphere, like this Zmag post, says it will be just another conduit for K Street lobbyists, and a lucrative one if the print version of The Politico matches competitor Roll Call’s $10,000+ per-page print ads.
Meanwhile, PaidContent called The Politico might signal the end of days for this latest economic boomlet:
I can understand why such personnel moves might be covered by an industry publication (like us), but the piece feels too narrow to belong in the Times. How do you know you’re in the late stages of a bubble? When the journalists start cashing in and other mainstream-outlet journalists report on it.
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
