Politico Started A Political Porn Empire, Mother of All Email Junkies
KEY POINTS
- ā¢In 2007, Jim VandeHei left The Washington Post and Mike Allen departed TIME magazine to co-found Politico with John Harris and others in Washington D.C.
- ā¢They pioneered fast, niche political coverage, launching Politico Playbook newsletter to reach influential readers every morning before competitors even started work.
- ā¢This innovation fragmented media, boosted star journalistsā profiles, and inspired new models like Axios, while also accelerating political entertainment and news distrust.
In 2007, Jim VandeHei quit The Washington Post and Mike Allen left TIME to launch Politico, a tiny D.C. startup that nuked the daily news cycle and birthed political porn. Co-founders include John Harris, Robert Allbritton, Fred Ryan, and Kim Kingsleyāwho apparently all rolled credits on what became the Blue Steel of political news. Mike Allen's Politico Playbook turned dusty newsletters into a must-read morning ritual, making news consumers addicted faster than a TikTok dopamine hit. Axios AM now pills the same power players daily as the Post commanded when Jim left 20 years ago. They made journalists like Maggie Haberman and Ben Smith bigger than their brands, rewarding bylines over legacies. This media microtargeting shattered reality into ideological jigsaw puzzles and gave birth to a 24/7 obsession so fierce that even reporters start work at dawn just to beat competitors to 6 a.m. scoops. While Politico wasnāt solely to blame, it lit the fuse that shredded traditional media, made journalists CEOs of themselves, and turned politics into an addiction with inbox dopamine injections every sunrise.
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Nothing screams journalistic integrity like turning democracy into political porn fueled by newsletters where reporters clock in at dawn just to out-scoop each other. Welcome to the dismemberment of news, powered by media stars cashing checks bigger than local governments.
Remember when newspapers took a day to report news? Politico ended that faster than you can unsubscribe from an Axios AM blast.
They swapped slow journalism for 24/7 political drama addicts and turned reporters into influencer entrepreneurs. Jeff Bezos, eat your heart out.
Source: Axios | Published: 1/13/2026 | Author: Jim VandeHei
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