Politico Explains Politico
BY Nancy Scola | Wednesday, July 22 2009
A smart political consultant type said to me this spring that there's nothing in politics that the web has changed more than it has changed political reporting. I know, seems obvious when you say it aloud. Still, it's largely true. And for better or for worse, Politico has come to symbolize the transformation of Washington journalism in the last handful of years. The Politico team (I refuse to go all caps and type POLITICO as they appear to want you to do -- it's just too much) was on "Charlie Rose" last night and offered an intriguing distillation of what the Politico approach is. Sure, there's the memo, but this was an even more fleshed-out view of their master plan to "dominate coverage of politics in Washington," in the words of editor in chief John Harris.
I can't for the life of me figure out how to embed the video from Google Video, so go watch it and come back. Doo doo doo...okay, all done? Let's continue.
A key moment comes about six and a half minutes in, when Harris explains how what he is looking for in a Politico reporter fundamentally differs from what he wanted as an editor at the Washington Post: "When I was making hiring decisions at the Washington Post, I don't believe I ever would have taken a look at Ben Smith." The irony, of course, is that Smith is now one the one of Politico's star blogger/reporters. As Smith was also on the show and sitting a few feet from Harris, this prompted laughter. "Working at the New York Observer, writing a blog there -- that's not the kind of guy we would have hired." Pressed to explain, said Harris, "He hadn't worked at the Richmond-Times Dispatch like [Politico chief political correspondent] Mike Allen had. He hadn't covered Fairfax County government in northern Virginia like I had. He hadn't come from the Philadelphia Inquirer -- the traditional steps that used to be important to journalists as they tried to work their way up in these institutions." So why bring him on to Politico? "What he did have," explained Harris, "was the ability to drive the conversation. In New York, people who were following politics said 'Did you see what Ben posted today?' or 'We've got to get this to Ben' or 'We just can't believe this thing that's up on Ben's column right now."
"My firm belief is that in this web era," continued Harris, "not all reporters are created equal. There are certain reporters that have a special ability to thrive in this web era, to drive the conversation. They've got a quickness, an immediacy, a perceptiveness to say 'this is a big story, and it is a big story that I'm going to drive right now, not for a big Sunday piece that I'm going...'" Interjected Rose, "It's immediacy." "Yep," said Harris.
Executive editor Jim VandeHei offered his take on where Politico slots into the DC media universe: "There's nobody who matters in politics that's not reading us obsessively."
UPDATE: A reader points out that Harris was engaging in a bit of story-telling to make a point here. Smith put his time in on traditional newspapers before joining Politico, including a weekly column for the New York Daily News -- a far bigger paper than the Richmond Times-Dispatch.