INSIDE
THE CULT
the numbers continued dwindling. The Washington City Paper
reported recently that TBD had
“lost its last full-time employee.”
Brady said that Politico “got
the runway it needed to take-off,”
unlike TBD and that he “never
got the sense the corporate folks
got the same passion for local
news as politics.”
Steve Buttry, who was TBD’s
director of community engagement and now holds the position
at Digital First Media and the
Journal Register Co., said he had
the same impression.
“I don’t think Fred Ryan was
ever as committed to TBD as he
was to Politico,” Buttry said. “Politico made him politically relevant again and that was important
to him, and I think he had more
patience for that than for TBD.”
Harris places Allbritton and
Ryan in the “core group that
started Politico,” along with VandeHei, Allen and himself. When
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06.24.12
discussing his future with Politico, Harris said Allbritton knows
the two top editors “will do everything we can to make sure we help
him build a publication that can
prosper for the very long haul.”
While it’s difficult for outsiders to dig into Politico’s books,
several top editorial and business
side executives tried explaining
to the newsroom how the company makes money at an in-house
presentation in May called “Understanding Our Business Side.”
Politico staffers crammed into
a conference room in the Rosslyn
offices and enjoyed pizzas and
sodas while VandeHei, Harris,
Miki King, chief revenue officer
Roy Schwartz and vice president
of events Beth Lester spoke to the
audience, according to sources
not authorized to publicly discuss the meeting.
During the discussion,
Schwartz described Politico as
pulling in online ad rates significantly ahead of Washington competitors. VandeHei added some
specifics, telling staff that Politico
has a two-tier CPM (or cost-per-