blogads for the opinion makers

Politico.com is a huge success, writes Lindsey McPherson in the American Journalism Review. “In May, it had 3.5 million unique visitors and 25.1 million page views, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. Editor & Publisher ranked Politico the 10th-most-visited newspaper site that month.”

The site IS highly regarded and highly trafficked. But read another way, Politico is a raging bonfire of greenbacks, a financial failure. Turns out, Politico.com piggybacks a tiny print publication — 27,000 copies published just three days a week — that happens to generate 150% more revenue than the site. As Ezra Klein sums up the situation:

Were they actually web only, they’d be losing catastrophic amounts of money. If The Politico was an experiment to see if people would read more stuff about politics, it was a success. But insofar as it sought a new business model that would bring economic viability to online reportage, it’s as adrift as everyone else.

A whole raft of aspiring publishing moguls are lined up expecting to get rich on politics this year — it’s gonna be interesting to see how many players are left come January 15, 2009 when they’ve made moderate profits (a few) or (mostly) abysmal losses and face an 18 month drought into the next election cycle.

Here’s an interesting dissection of the absence of a blogging bubble in the UK.

Did anyone else read Tim Arango’s recent NYTimes’ article about Vivi Nevo, Internet man of mystery, and wonder why the journalist didn’t invoke Jay Gatsby, the self-made man of another bubble-infused age?

Of all the characters the media business attracts — and creates, for that matter — perhaps no one is more remarked upon, wondered about or marveled at than Mr. Nevo. Among his many overlapping circles of friends, nearly all say that Mr. Nevo is a force in their lives: a loyal friend, a trusted conveyor and keeper of information and someone who never forgets a birthday or a bar mitzvah.

You get the feeling Arango had some off-the-record allegations he wanted to unleash but couldn’t cajole into the daylight, hence the repeated and elaborate “what does Vivi really do?” incantations?

Those who knew Mr. Nevo in the 1980s, after he moved to New York from Israel, have watched his rise with curiosity.

“You’re asking questions I’ve asked myself many times,” said Nicolas Rachline, who met Mr. Nevo in the late 1980s when both were part of a fashionable New York expatriate crowd that hung out at Le Bilboquet, a French restaurant on the Upper East Side. “What the hell does Vivi do? He seems to be a powerful player in the entertainment industry. How, I don’t know.”

Maybe we’ll know someday.

Newspaper holding company AH Belo announced yesterday that ad revenues were down 21% in the second quarter. That 21% is the biggest decline I’ve seen yet. (Belo publishes four daily newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News and Providence Journal.)

For broader context: here’s an article about the ill newspaper industry in the International Herald Tribune, ironically, a newspaper I used to write for. Yes, the article includes that dire phrase “since the Great Depression.”

More thoughts on the phrase “worst since the Great Depression”.

The new Google killer looks slick. But it lacks advertising. I’m not just talking about the kind that pays the bills, I’m talking about the entire content category.

Google’s notice last week that its growth continues to slow got a lot of attention. A couple of other data-points to highlight:

a) ValueClick, a network focused on lead generation and display advertising, announced on Thursday that it no longer expects a strong second half (H2 is usually significantly stronger than H1.) It revised its projections for total ‘08 revenues from $730-$745 million to $655-$675 million. Last year’s number was $665 million, so VCLK is saying it won’t grow. More details on their deceleration in online advertising.

b) Q1 ‘08 was the first quarter in many in which online advertising shrunk relative to the previous quarter.

c) In other bad news for money-losing Internet companies praying they’ll be acquired before they run out of money, AOL, previously an acquirer, is desparately seeking its own corporate safe haven as its ad sales plateau.