For weeks, beltway journos have been buzzing about the launch of The Politico, which hit the streets, the airwaves and the Internet this morning. With a slew of players and platforms, the intersection between politics and media is starting to resemble the Springfield Interchange. More after the screen grab…
At first the buzz centered around the name (originally “The Politico” was “The Capitol Leader”). Then it was around all the money that Allbritton was splashing around to snag editorial aces like John Harris and Jim Vanderhei from the Washington Post‘s political bullpen as well as looting staffers from congressional rags Roll Call and The Hill. Today the buzz is the buzz itself. Hawkers are on the streets pushing print copies into commuters hands (the cover price on the thrice weekly tabloid is a jaw-dropping $3.50) and Politico staffers are showing up all over the radio and television dial.
Online M.E. and Associate Publisher Dan Kunitz has had typical first day 404s, and from the error pages we’ve learned that he’s got Cold Fusion and Apache running on Fedora behind the site. While it forgoes Safran’s telltale shiny graphic treatments and sticks with oldschool caricatures, the site is chock full of what could grow into Web 2.0 features.
Meanwhile, WaPost preemptively launched a redesigned politics section just a few days ago, leveraging the power of their almost legendary journoprogrammer Adrian Holovaty and his mad database mojo. When it comes to social networking, don’t forget about HotSoup, the political community site that snagged veteran AP politics scribe Ron Fournier last year. And of course, quite a few elements of the blogosphere, like redstate.com, are growing up, fast.
The field is crowded, but if social media and hyperlocal are more than just buzzwords, with half of Americans getting their political fix online and the candidates themselves more than happy to give it to them where they want it, this is shaping up to be a very interesting run towards 2008.