‘Politico’ takes a run at statehouses
Puts boots on ground — beyond Beltway
As journalism has been thoroughly disrupted by the digital revolution, one of the serious casualties has been coverage of state government.
It’s not the sexiest of topics, hardly able to compete with Hillary’s van tour stop at Chipotle, not to mention Madonna kissing Drake. But it’s vitally important. Actions by state government deeply affect the lives of their residents. People need to know what their state officials are up to. And that’s particularly the case with Washington paralyzed by gridlock and critical struggles playing out at the state level.
During my years as editor of
American Journalism Review, we took a number of detailed surveys compiling the rosters of reporters assigned to all 50 statehouses. Each one showed a distressing decline. The most recent tally, by the Pew Research Center, found more of the same.
But here’s some good news: Politico, the dynamo that revolutionized coverage of Washington — OK, not always in a good way — is taking the show on the road.
In 2013, Politico acquired Capital New York, which covers politics in New York, including the state capital in Albany. Now Politico is swallowing up Capital New York, rebranding it as Politico New York and merging the staffs.
More important, the D.C. juggernaut is stepping up its incursion into the world Outside the Beltway. This year, it is launching operations in New Jersey and Florida. And there are more outposts to come.
Robust coverage of the shame- fully ignored state capitals is a major part of the mission. As has been the case since Politico launched in 2007 and rapidly became a big player in D.C. reporting, the company is thinking big, with a dollop or two of grandiose thrown in.
“We have a chance here to do something special for journalism and state coverage,” Jim VandeHei, Politico cofounder and CEO, said in a statement. “Ever since I walked into the statehouse in Albany after we purchased Capital, and saw again an important, powerful institution with a diminished press presence, I hoped we could find a template for saving coverage of state government. I believe we have. We will have a blast proving it.”
VandeHei seems to think this makes good business sense as well as being good for the body politic. This isn’t some civicminded foundation riding to the rescue. “We wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t supremely con-
fident these efforts will be both profitable and produce awesome journalism,” the rarely understated VandeHei told Capital New York.
Here’s hoping he’s right. Because the state capital press corps need all the help it can get. And so far betting against Politico has been a bad idea. The website, which also has a print presence on Capitol Hill, was the brainchild of VandeHei and his Washington Post colleague John Harris. The idea was to cover everything, absolutely everything, in Washington, really, really quickly.
While Politico made its bones with saturation coverage and an absolute commitment to “win the morning,” it has moved toward deeper, more sophisticated journalism under the current editor, Susan Glasser.
Expanding its national footprint is just a part of the Politico game plan. The company is after world domination. Politico Europe, a digital/print partnership with German publisher Axel Springer, debuts April 21. The fledgling operation has so far hired 36 journalists of 20 nationalities. In an era that has witnessed so much retrenchment at news outlets, it’s refreshing to see such an ambitious approach.
In his recent speech on the future of news, Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron stressed how critical it is to have actual reporters out in the field. It’s so true. Aggregation and commodity news alone will just not cut it. You need boots on the ground, reporters doing enterprising work.
Let’s hope the added Politico firepower in state capitals leads to incisive coverage of vital issues. We need and deserve it.