• Vanity Fair, Wednesday, July 1, 2009 10:16 PM

A quartet of old-media veterans may have solved the future of news with the Politico Web site and newspaper. Politico is famous for its real-time download of power data online to a specialized audience of 6 million - but its print version is what makes it profitable.

Politico was launched by two former Washington Post reporters to cover the 2008 presidential campaign, and with 100 or so staffers it is continuing to prosper.

Despite its high Web traffic, it can't support its staff on the Internet's low ad rates, although it manages to get a higher rate than most sites. More than half of Politico's revenue comes from its Capitol Hill-based paper, which largely reprints its Internet content and has a circulation of 32,000. Internet cachet feeds the demand for the tabloid-size print version. Together, the Web and print ads will bring in more than $15 million in 2009. The paper's success also means Politico is able to pay its staffers about what The Washington Post pays.

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