| Seven Days has an interesting article looking at the new-ish political website, PolitickerVT. I'd been looking at them myself and had been kicking around a diary when I was contacted by Kevin Kelley, the reporter who was working on the story. I dumped what I knew about 'em onto Kelley and had a pretty good chat in general about new media.
PolitickerVT is one of several "Politicker" sites in several states, coordinated out of a central office (in New York), and all supposedly administered by an anonymous mystery man ("Wally Edge"), who writes his op-eds from a generally hard-right wing perspective. If it sounds familiar, it should; this exactly describes the original PoliticsVT site back in 2001-2004-ish - not the "Dead Governors" blogspot site that Haik crusaded against, but the original, headed by mystery man "Moe Robinson."
A new blog billing itself as "the primary destination for all Vertmont [sic] political news" is generating low-frequency buzz among local new-media mavens as well as head scratching among in-state bloggers. The slickly produced site, with a come-on offering "inside politics for political insiders," is being bankrolled by a New York City media mogul, and much of its content is being recycled from Vermont news outlets by a reporter based in Washington, D.C.
Politickervt.com aims to attract attention through a mystique of anonymity. Its editor in chief, who's also the site's commentator, goes under the pseudonym Wally Edge. He or she did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. Alex Isenstadt, the actual name of the site's sole reporter, also could not be reached for comment.
Bob Sommer, president of the Observer Media Group, did agree to speak for attribution about politickervt.com and similar sites his Manhattan-based company owns in eight other states.
Clearly, somebody has decided that a cookie-cutter approach to new media might make a local, blog-esque "franchise" profitable. Maybe, but I kinda doubt it, frankly, and I imagine that this will go more or less the same way as the original PolVT - a sort of gradual, steady slide into disarray and kneejerk right-wingnuttery before shutting down (PolVT, of course, resurrected shortly thereafter as something rather different).
But Kelley did get one thing very wrong, despite my attempt to disavow him of his misconception:
But, (Carpetbagger Report's Steve Benen) adds, the out-of-state sponsorship of politickervt.com and its reliance on a reporter writing from Washington will put it at a competitive disadvantage with regard to Vermont-rooted political blogs such as John Odum's Green Mountain Daily.
The fact is, GMD is not in competition with Politicker. To an extent that's because we're very different sites, with very different agendas and reasons for existing. But really, it's because GMD is simply not in competition with anybody. |
| This is a weblog. A piece of software that allows a bunch of amateur busybodies to have their say. Whether that draws 6 people or 600 is not the point. Nobody's making any money to speak of from this, and if all the attention disappeared tomorrow, I doubt that would stop anybody here from posting. We yak because we're compulsive - and hopefully we can leverage that compulsion to affect the public debate and do some good netroots organizing. If not - oh well... but so far so good.
Politicker and the Observer are motivated by something else: profit. They're trying to make money, and as such they need to generate an audience and presumably some revenue. Where GMDers may occasionally catch a story, we're equally content to comment on what's already out there. Politicker needs material to be profitable, though, and that means getting out there trolling for gossip - apparently in a rather crude way.
For an example of what I mean, here's an example of the sort of email they've been circulating to legislators:
Hey I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself to you. My name is Wally Edge and I am the columnist for a new Vermont political website launched the first week of December called PolitickerVT.com
PolitickerVT is owned by the NY Observer group is a sister state to numerous Politicker sites around the Country including PolitickerNJ which has been the leading nonpartisan political website in NJ for over a decade.
At PolitickerVT we update news links from around the state daily. We also have a paid reporter who files regular stories from around the state.
Our goal is to become your one stop shop for political news from around the state. One of my jobs will to produce a weekly winners and losers list from around the state. If you ever have a suggestion on someone I should consider then please pass their name on to me. Also I will be filing regular column articles which will contain interesting tidbits and confirmed gossip in which I am hearing about.
The way I work: Each state around the country which has a politicker website has a Wally Edge. Wally is and will remain anonymous.? I have no allegiances but I do have a good understanding of the Vermont political scene.
There is good reason for remaining anonymous.? When you decide to share a tip or gossip with me I will never reveal who the information came from unless you specifically tell me to do so. I will not source names unless there is a mutual agreement to do so. Unlike a regular reporter in which you need to assume you are on the record, with myself you can always assume you are on background.
This relationship has been working in other states for over a decade and has a history of success.? I understand some will be reluctant at first, but please don't prejudge. Give me a shot and you will see the working relationship can benefit both of us.
If you have an email list please add my address. Please share with me your press releases, interesting tidbits about you campaigns, candidates and organizations. Also share with me interesting gossip about you opponents and the other party. I will never publish gossip in which I don't believe to be true or I cannot get anyone to confirm, but I can publish things without
sourcing that a regular reporter (including our reporter) could or would not.
Thanks for your time and I look forward to a long relationship.
Bleh.
No, we're not competing. "Wally" and the Observer are playing a very different game. |
