One of the great success stories in local media has to be Politico, the political web-print startup by Allbritton, the small television ownership group in DC. Politico, according to SEC filings dug up by PaidContent, has hit $20 million a year in revenue. Wow.
Politico is one of very few success stories of local broadcasters who have broken out of their traditional market and content boundaries. And now, as reported a few weeks ago, Allbritton is looking to go deep in the DC market and take on the Washington Post in local news on the web, combining the assets of Politico, WJLA and Newschannel 8 along with as many as 50 new employees.
Two or three years ago, the notion of a local television operation seriously taking on the Washington Post both in politics and local news would be met with extreme skepticism or outright laughter. But with Allbritton’s success with Politico under its belt — not to mention former WashingtonPost.com editor Jim Brady at the helm of its new local operation — nobody’s laughing.
BIA/Kelsey has written up a great look at how Allbritton arrived at the decision to go deep in local. Allbritton’s aggressive competitive attitude with the web (invest big) combined with a broader approach to creating new market opportunities (national/regional interest) could be a lesson for traditional local media everywhere.
