By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
New York Times
The creators of Politico plan to do for local news in Washington and its suburbs what they already have done for national politics, announcing on Wednesday that they will build a large, Web-based local news organization from scratch, at a time when traditional news organizations are struggling and shrinking.

Jim Brady

Allbritton Communications said its new operation would start with a newsroom of about 50 people – far larger than those of other local news start-ups around the country, though still smaller than the local news staffs of major metropolitan newspapers. The editor will be Jim Brady, the executive editor of washingtonpost.com until early this year, who said his journalists would earn salaries competitive with those at large papers.

Robert L. Allbritton, who heads the family-owned company, and Mr. Brady said they had concluded that the venture had to be done on a large scale or not done at all – essentially the same premise that accompanied the founding of Politico.

“To really staff it appropriately and make a compelling product is a very expensive project,” Mr. Allbritton said. “It’s definitely an investment in the millions. It’s not dissimilar to what we were looking at when we launched Politico.”

Read Full Story

Filed under: Guild News