Huffington Magazine Issue 2 | Page 90

INSIDE THE CULT thousand impressions), which hinges on site-visitors’ locations. Politico’s CPM outside D.C. is $10-20, while within the Beltway, the company brings between $50-60, depending on the timing and location of the ads. VandeHei noted that Politico is geared toward a niche audience and doesn’t have to continuously grow traffic as do more general interest sites that don’t command premium ad rates. Four days later, in his office, VandeHei touched upon this theme, saying that while every site hopes to grow traffic, it’s not the most important thing for Politico. “We’re not reliant on big traffic,” he said. “Our whole business model is being indispensable to this city, to people who do this stuff professionally, to people who are addicted to it.” HUFFINGTON 06.24.12 VandeHei says that Politico is “a niche play, and we’re dominating our niche,” adding “that’s why we’re expanding into all these different areas, always with a focus on Washington.” Traffic chatter bores him, he says. “I get a little bit weary when people try to compare this to, ‘Oh, The New York Times has so much more traffic than you or The Huffington Post,” VandeHei says. “Right, you guys have about forty different sub-channels, you’re in different countries, you’re covering sports, you have pictures and girls and all this stuff that generates a lot of traffic. We do politics. That’s what we do. We do policy. That’s what we do.” Rebecca Ballhaus provided research assistance for this article.