Politico drops local television

 Politico, drops local television. In a nutshell, it is the message sent last week by Mr Allbritton the 44 years old head of the Allbritton group. This powerfull media enterprise based in Washington DC has made a significant move towards the digital age. It is about to sell its 7 local TV's including a very prosperous station in DC for about 300 millions dollars to invest in digital news. And it keeps and intends to develop its flagship activity in Internet, Politico, the very successful web and print publication on the US political life.

Allbriton stated that Politico that started 4 years ago with 2 top journalists from the Washington Post employs now 200 people and is profitable. It is fairly obvious that new websites will be lauched thanks to the big money collected through the sale of the local TV's. Two years ago, at a conference in Paris a Politico executive hinted that a public could be interested by an international affairs site. It would be a costly investment but the financing is there.

At the same time, the Washingon Post is steadily declining. for the first term of 2013, its sales and its advertising income are down and the future looks very dark indeed. In DC it is a tale of two medias.