INSIDE
THE CULT
through the election, managed to
join BuzzFeed late last year.
Although Politico enjoyed positive buzz this spring for its idiosyncratic Politico Live streaming
broadcasts on Republican primary nights, including a “Talk of
the Town” write-up in the New
Yorker, it’s unclear how much investment in streaming video and
produced television there will be
down the line.
For his part, VandeHei didn’t
fixate on contracts or growing
pains at the anniversary party
in May. Instead, he boasted that
he’d take Politico’s editorial and
business-side teams — whether
Congress, White House, Enterprise, Sales or Marketing — over
any other publication’s in the
country and reminded staffers
that, five years earlier, he said
Politico would be better than the
New York Times and Washington
Post. And five years later, he said,
Politico is better.
Indeed, VandeHei did make
such a boast over five years ago
— to me.
“I think we’ll show that we’re
HUFFINGTON
06.24.12
better than the New York Times
or the Washington Post,” VandeHei told me in November
2006, for a New York Observer
article covering his and Harris’
bombshell exit from the Washington Post to launch a newspaper called Capitol Leader and an
“as-of-yet-unnamed” website.
Both later became Politico, or
POLITICO, to borrow from the
all-caps house style it uses to
promote the publication’s name
in every article. (A year after
the Observer interview, I joined
Politico as the site’s first media
reporter, a position I held until
leaving in 2010).
Politico takes its brand seriously and is fiercely protective of its reputation, earning
largely laudatory coverage
over the last five years. A few
days after I made calls for this
story, Politico chief operating officer Kim Kingsley sent
a “friendly reminder” to staffers that they should direct any
questions from reporters to
her, Harris and VandeHei.
Following that email, several