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Verticalization in action

July 2, 2009 by Mike Shatzkin 2 Comments

Michael Wolff has written in Vanity Fair about Politico, which demonstrates many of the priciples of verticalization that I have written about often on this blog. He begins with a summary of a startlingly prescient piece Michael Crichton wrote in the fourth issue of Wired Magazine. Wolff writes:

“In the fourth issue of Wired magazine, in the fall of 1993, just as the Internet was entering public consciousness, Michael Crichton, the author of The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, wrote an essay arguing that newspapers were doomed because they were too dumb. As information became cheaper, more plentiful, and easier to get, consumers, he argued, would become ever more immersed in their specific interests and understand that their more generally oriented paper—at least in the matter of a reader’s special interest, but also by inference everything else—had no idea what it was talking about.”

As for Politico:

They are narrow and deep.

They have established a brand that trumps, or soon will trump, the formerly established brands in their niche.

They built an “Internet-first” model, but they have a “spinoff” print product that is a major contributor to their revenue.

They’re (apparently) profitable.

And if you publish a book on politics. I guarantee you’ll be knocking at their virtual door.

Have a great 4th of July weekend!

Filed Under: New Models, Politics, Publishing, Vertical Tagged With: Michael Wolff, Politico, Vanity Fair

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Mike Shatzkin

Mike Shatzkin is the Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company and a widely-acknowledged thought leader about digital change in the book publishing industry. Read more.

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