Politico 44

According to Politico 44, its website is supposed to be a “living diary of the Obama presidency.” It documents the President’s daily schedule minute by minute, showing everything from his 8:10 a.m. visit to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial to the designer labels his wife is sporting at lunch. The site also posts the President’s weekly address, about a dozen stories covering his administration and a variety of commentaries and videos.

The content of the site is fairly straightforward, covering the daily life of the President and Vice President as well as news about anything involving their meetings and decisions. The design of the site is similar to Politico’s main page, with the three-column layout, headlines and short introductions for stories. Stories on the main page often lead to the “44” page when clicked. But the “44” site outlines its stories and videos differently, with rounded borders, setting the page apart in a subtle way.

The President’s schedule at the far right is also pleasing to the eye. Designers use a time-line approach with text boxes and “white space” to separate the information from the rest of the page.

To build and operate this site it would take a team of developers as well as one project manager or “managing editor” to lead a team of news editors, reporters, copy editors and designers. The daily processes involved in maintaining the site would need to be well organized and consistent. The dozen or so reporters writing content for the site would need to meet their deadlines for submitting stories to the news editor, who would then work with them on major story edits. After this, the stories would go to the copy editors, who probably edit copy for the entire Politico site. They would need to quickly edit stories for grammar and style as well as fact-check for accuracy. From here, the stories would go to site designers and developers to post. Then the page would need to be reorganized to highlight the latest stories. Because the site’s design is fairly straightforward and consistent, this would probably involve moving stories down on the page or deleting them and then replacing them with new content.

To put this site together, an enormous amount of information would need to be acquired quickly. Because the site offers up-to-the-minute information on the President’s whereabouts and activities, one to three reporters would need to be focused on obtaining the latest information from White House contacts and then transferring it to other Politico 44 team members. Reporters working on more in-depth stories would also need to develop sources to document the most recent information involving the White House, from a new Supreme Court appointment to the President’s meetings with foreign officials.

Politico 44 has figured out how to offer the most recent information on the President and his decisions and activities in a compelling way. Those involved in producing this site have most likely adopted the basic project management tenets, such as setting schedules and assessing risks – like sources not returning calls, copy editors calling off sick or technical glitches on the site. As outlined in Making Things Happen, by Scott Berkun, project managers also need to examine the personalities, abilities and weaknesses of team members, which Politico 44 managers no doubt assess. Some reporters’ copy might require more editing than others, which would need to be considered, just to name one example.

Overall, after examining the “44” site, the success Politico has had is no surprise.