Mediaite’s Top Site of 2009: Politico

With print’s business model eroding, how can journalists make the move online without sacrificing quality or originality? It’s a question that’s likely to dominate j-school discussions for some time to come — and there are plenty of grown-ups who haven’t yet found the answer.

Fortunately, some have. Last week, we ran a poll of some of the contenders for Top Site of 2009: Politico topped our editorial list. Find out why, and see the runner-up and the winner of the poll, after the jump:

Winner: Politico

Sure, Politico has a print edition — with a mighty circulation of 32,000 — but its heart beats online. Given its prominence in the online discourse, it’s hard to believe that it launched in January of 2007, but its strategy of frenetic, up-to-the-minute coverage allowed it to quickly dwarf much older, much larger publications in its online footprint.

2009 was a transformative year for Politico: it weathered the inevitable post-election traffic downturn admirably; its executive editor, Jim VandeHei, was named to the Pulitzer Prize Board; and it became profitable (ironically, thanks in large measure to its print edition, according to Michael Wolff). According to paidContent, Politico had revenues of more than $20 million and profits of more than $1 million in 2009 — especially impressive given the relative lack of campaign advertising compared to last year. Politico’s parent company, Allbritton Communications, has certainly taken note: it announced that it would be launching a new DC news site in spring of 2010.

Politico is not without its detractors — Glenn Greenwald has accused it of deliberately puffing up conservative controversies in the name of traffic. But for finding a viable way to cover a topic as potentially poisonous as politics in a more or less nonpartisan way while garnering mainstream acceptance and acclaim, Politico has changed the game in 2009.

Runner-Up: Talking Points Memo

On the flip side of the coin is Talking Points Memo, which makes no bones about its “politically left perspective,” but which has blossomed into a vibrant, ever-expanding empire with hard journalistic bonafides. Last year, TPM was the first blog to ever win a Polk Award, for editor Josh Marshall‘s series on the politically motivated midterm dismissal of Department of Justice attorneys under the Bush Administration.

This year, TPM has continued to blaze a trail: it has reversed the old journalism paradigm by rolling out ambitious plans for expansion, putting out a call to hire a publisher, and — maybe the best mark of crossover success — earned Josh Marshall an invite to an off-the-record luncheon with President Obama, alongside heavyweights from The Washington Post, The New York Times, and CNN.

Readers’ Choice: Ars Technica

Thanks in large measure to strong Twitter support, Ars Technica dominated our reader poll with 30% of the votes, giving it a solid plurality (compare that to Politico’s 17% and TPM’s 8%). All of which underscores two of Ars’ greatest assets: love and loyalty.

The site has hit its speed bumps in ’09: in April, it reportedly laid off seven of its seventeen editorial staffers, a move which some criticized on management issues following Condé Nast’s acquisition of the site in late 2008. But when it comes to depth, and expertise, Ars still occupies a dominant space in the tech pantheon, and as 2010 beckons, it brings a heft and authority to bear that leaves most blogs in the dust.

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