In September 2008, The New York Times reported that Politico would expand its operations following the 2008 presidential election: “after Election Day, [Politico] will add reporters, editors, Web engineers and other employees; expand circulation of its newspaper edition in Washington; and print more often.”[11]

A 2009 profile of the organization in Vanity Fair said Politico had an editorial staff of 75 and a total staff of 100. Its circulation is around 32,000 and as of summer 2009 its web traffic was around 6.7 million unique visitors per month. This is less than the 11 million it had during the high point of the campaign, but most political news outlets have lower traffic outside election years. As of July it was expected to have annual revenue of around $15 million, primarily from the printed product, enough for the publication to remain financially solvent.[4]

The newspaper has a circulation of approximately 32,000,[4] distributed for free on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in Washington, D.C.[1] The newspaper prints up to five issues a week while Congress is in session, and sometimes publishes one issue a week when Congress is in recess.[5] It carries advertising, including full-page ads from trade associations and a large help-wanted section listing Washington political jobs.

Politico is a partner with several news outlets that co-report and distribute its video, print, and audio content. Partners include CBS News,[6] Allbritton Communications’s ABC station WJLA and cable channel TBD TV,[7] radio station WTOP-FM,[8] and Yahoo! News election coverage.

Journalists covering political campaigns for Politico carry a video camera with them to each assignment,[7] and journalists are encouraged to promote their work elsewhere.[8] Though Politico seeks to break the traditional journalism mold, it expects to initially make much of its money from Washington D.C.–focused newspaper advertising.[9]

After liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America accused Politico of having a “Republican tilt,” Politico’s Ben Smith answered: “Media Matters has a point: …that Bush’s public endorsement made us seem too close to the White House. That was clearly a favor from the president to us (albeit a small one), and felt to me like one of those clubby Beltway moments that make the insiders feel important and the outsiders feel (accurately) like outsiders.” The other primary editors disagreed with the general accusation for a variety of reasons and some pointed to accusations of a liberal bias from the other side of the political spectrum.[10]

John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei left The Washington Post to become Politico’s editor-in-chief and executive editor, respectively, launching the newspaper on January 23, 2007. Frederick J. Ryan Jr., former Assistant to President Ronald Reagan,[2] is president and CEO.[3]

Beck hits ratings low, Maddow tops Morgan

Did you expect to learn that Glenn Beck was in the dump and that Maddow was surging?

Here’s the full article:

The January ratings are in and Glenn Beck had his worst performance since his Fox show started in January of 2009, drawing just 397,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic and 1.762 total viewers. He still wins the 5 p.m. time slot, though, with MSNBC’s “Hardball” coming in second.

Despite the fanfare surrounding the rollout of CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” at 9 p.m. and some strong ratings out of the gate, it came in third place during its first two weeks, behind “Hannity” and “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

Some facts this article could have included had it wanted to tell the full story:

• Glenn Beck has been losing viewers since his high of about 3 million when he started.   He still crushes the competition however.
• On January 27th:  Beck had 1.733 million viewers.  “Hardball” had 654k viewers.
• On January 31st:  Beck had 2.671 million viewers.  “Hardball” had 628k viewers.  Nearly 2 million more viewers that day for Beck.
• As for the 25-54 age bracket touted in the story:  On January 27th Beck had 460k while Hardball had 120k
• Beck’s viewer totals usually outnumber the next 4 shows below him combined
• Rachel Maddow’s numbers held consistent for January at about 990k
• Hannity trounces Maddow’s numbers:
  Jan 27th: Maddow 983k  Hannity 1.87m
  Jan 31st: Maddow  1.1m  Hannity  2.57m

So given these facts, why was the news that “Maddow tops Morgan”?  Her numbers didn’t change.  It was Piers Morgan’s drop from his big debut  that put him behind Maddow.

Looking to promote more than inform?  I SEE BIAS.

Link to article:  http://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0211/Beck_hits_ratings_low_Maddow_tops_Morgan.html?showall