Comments on: How Talking Points Memo plans to expand its staff, open bureau in DC

By: Talking Points Memo and the dozen in 2012 » Nieman Journalism Lab

Talking Points Memo and the dozen in 2012 » Nieman Journalism Lab — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:45:31 +0000

[...] readership is now at 1.8 million unique visitors per month, which is up from the 1.5 million he told me in July. “We’ve had a lot of growth over the past six months or so,” Marshall [...]

By: Zachary M. Seward

Zachary M. Seward — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:47:07 +0000

Larry, you are absolutely correct, and I have fixed the passage. Thanks for pointing out the mistake. —Zach

By: Larry Jones

Larry Jones — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:41:36 +0000

You wrote that Politico was a “VC-backed internet outlet.” That is completely false. Politico is part of a very large media conglomerate. It was effectively acquired wholesale pre-revenue. That is worlds apart from being “VC-backed.” Apparently the layers and layers of fact-checking that have made Old Media so profitable are also present at the Nieman Journalism Lab…

By: Niche outlets replace newspapers in Washington » Nieman Journalism Lab

Niche outlets replace newspapers in Washington » Nieman Journalism Lab — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:40:10 +0000

[...] evidence suggests that the trend will continue. Talking Points Memo is preparing to open a Washington bureau, and The Huffington Post is ramping up in the capital as well. Coverage [...]

By: More on TPM Media’s fundraising — Citizen Jake

More on TPM Media’s fundraising — Citizen Jake — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:19:38 +0000

[...] Niemen Journalism Lab and the NY Times provide some of the commentary I asked for regarding TPM Media’s [...]

By: Zachary M. Seward

Zachary M. Seward — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:17:44 +0000

AW, having toiled at a news site for no pay, I agree that's an important point, and I'll try not to overlook it next time. (When I ran that video tour of the newsroom, I made the mistake of naming everyone except the interns, who were just "interns.") As you say, plenty of news organizations rely on unpaid interns, but at a company of 11 employees, having 4 extra, full-time positions at no cost is quite significant. And, Pat, we'll definitely try to stay on top of it and report on how they're doing. And as for geographic focus, TPM is selling ads targeted specifically at its DC readership, about which more information is available on their advertising site, which was just relaunched. I have no sense yet of whether targeting has significantly boosted revenue, but I suspect that an additional motivation for the bureau in DC is ad sales. —Zach

By: Patrick Thornton

Patrick Thornton — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:11:18 +0000

This is exciting news. I hope the Nieman Lab stays on top of this story and tracks the progress of TPM over the next two years.

The only way for this money to play out in the end, however, is for TPM to be able to take this money and grow revenues. This means generating a lot more traffic, but also finding more revenue sources. Unfortunately, TPM isn’t geographically based per se, which limits some of its monetization avenues.

By: AW

AW — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:33:00 +0000

Very interesting news. I wish Marshall & company the best.

One small quibble, though: like many other profiles of Talking Points Memo, this article fails to address the role of the site’s unpaid interns. TPM has 4-5 at any given time, which (pending this expansion) represents about 30% of their staff. And as they augment their salaried workforce, it would not surprise me if they increase the number of interns accordingly.

I don’t think this detracts from Marshall’s remarkable accomplishment in nursing TPM to its current vigor, but it’s worth remembering that the site is heavily dependent on young, uncompensated journalists working hours just as long as — if not longer than — most of the paid staff members.

While this arrangement is not unique to TPM, I suspect that the percentage of work done by interns is as high there as at just about any other media outlet. That fact seems to go unmentioned in the paeans to the site’s business model (or even less flattering pieces, like Politico’s hit job from several months ago).