Huffington Magazine Issue 2 | Page 89

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 HUFFINGTON 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-