Politico 44 is a site that can stand by itself, but it's run by Politico. I think that the site probably is deceptively simple to run because so much of the content is supplied by other people and organizations. The blow by blow schedule is supplied to the press by the White House, so that bright shiny feature is spoonfed to them I bet.
The White Board is essentially a liveblog of whatever's happening live. Politico must have a correspondent that follows the president around to document the minutia. Then you see the speed read, which is basically a glorified RSS feed that links to content from other sites.
Next to that is a story written by Politico staff that could have been written from a wire or just from cursory info sent from a correspondent on the scene. I'm not going to break down every facet of the page, because there's so many. But, I think the content on this page is a genius mix of scene reports, hard news, scheduling news, video and links to other content.
There's gotta be a large amount of Politico staff that make it there business to being around. Parts of Politico 44 even remind me a bit of Gawker Stalker. They just need eyes and ears on the Hill and at The White House, some reporters that are used to writing stories on the fly, the information customarily available to the press, some researchers that sort through other media outlets and multimedia experts. They also must have some talented web designers because I usually hate pages that have this much content, but I actually think the page is inviting and clean.
I just wonder how long people will care about this kind of detail. America and the world are fascinated with 44 now, but when the sheen wears off will people still spend their times on sites like this? I'm not sure.
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Hi Macy,
ReplyDeleteThey will be fascinated for another four years - it's not that long, time passes quickly here. I usually start New Year preparations right after the Groundhog Day! And in four years you'll get presidential elections. Again, Politico 44 will remain one of the most visited websites, if Obama wins.
Hi Macy! I agree with you that this site has a lot of content supplied from other sources. I mention in my blog about who those sources are. But overall, I think it has a good quick overview of the Presidency, Day-to-Day.
ReplyDeleteYou pose an interesting question about how to sustain interest in a site like this. Most news organizations saw significant bumps in traffic during the 2008 presidential election. There are enough huge issues currently facing this administration that there is no shortage of content to feed Politico 44. The template, though, could readily be applied to some other subject if the conversation were to morph or if interest in the presidency were to wane significantly.
ReplyDeleteHi Marcy,
ReplyDeleteNice review. I agree with some of your analysis. It seems to me that the majority of Politico 44 is made up from content from other sources...and it does have a Gawker Stalker feel. In fact, the site has a general celebrity-new blog/website feel--I wonder to what, if any extent, they are following that model. While I do appreciate many aspects of the Pol. 44 site, I too wonder how long people will care for this kind of detail.
What Erich said...
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's probably "deceptively simple" to run P44 given all the stuff taken from (linked to) other sites and, as I noted in my blog, cross-pollination from other Politico pubs. I wonder, too, how long the fascination with Obama will last, although P44, to its credit, seems concerned with actual events and policy -- which will continue unabated for 4 (8?) years -- rather than celebrity-esque sightings around DC.
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