There's big money in political publishing, especially in an election year. According to TechCrunch,
an estimated $4.5 billion in political advertising will be spent across
all media in 2008. Plenty of partisan sites exist, but there's a
shortage of sites exclusively focused on politics and with no ideology other than "get out and vote."
Perhaps that's why Forbes Media this week bought a 51 percent stake in RealClearPolitics.com, a seven-year-old portal with an agnostic stance on candidates and issues. Last month former CNET Networks CEO Shelby Bonnie announced Political Base, a wiki-based political site focused more or less equally on local, state and national issues.
It'll be interesting to see whether TV news and major U.S newspapers publicize these new sites; they represent new and potentially formidable competition for eyeballs and ad dollars.
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