The new publication will have three daily newsletters, one free and two for subscribers, in addition to a daily podcast produced with Cadence 13 and teleconferences and virtual events for subscribers. Palmer, who covered lobbying and influence before co-writing the Playbook, will be the chief executive. The fourth co-founder – and just another employee – is Rachel Schindler, who left the Facebook news team to run the new company’s operations. And they will have no shortage of news in the coming days, starting with pressure from Pelosi to be re-elected mayor on Sunday, and the big question of how the Democratic left intends to use power in the Biden years.
And then there is the question of how to cover the Republican Party, many of whose leading figures have indicated that they will vote to reject the results of the presidential election. Is this a political party that responds to its constituents and should be covered as such? Or should reporters spend most of their time treating the House minority as a toxic anti-democratic sect?
“I don’t think it’s my duty to say, you know, necessarily label a person a liar, to say that he is disloyal to the country or something,” said Bresnahan. “But what is important for what we do is to say: why is this person doing this?”
This is not to say that Punchbowl reporters are afraid of confrontation with the people they cover in the small open world that is Capitol. Bresnahan has for years been the most willing journalist to publish the uncomfortable truth that many elderly lawmakers can no longer really do their job. Ms. Palmer and Mr. Sherman revealed corruption on both sides, and their reporting on Representative Aaron Schock’s spending habits led to his resignation in 2015.
(On Sunday, Mr. Sherman was reporting that Democratic and Republican officials were fighting on the floor of the House for the Republicans’ refusal to wear masks.)
During the Trump era, Capitol Hill was often treated by news organizations as an afterthought, even when Sherman and Palmer produced a daily reminder of how few of Trump’s plans could be turned into legislation, and maintained a frank ingenuity. White House on the functioning of the legislative branch of government.
Politico will be competing in the same field, albeit on a much larger scale, with more than 600 employees and $ 160 million in revenue last year. Politico executives said leaving the Playbook team would allow them to extend the franchise from their current Capitol focus. They want him to have a broader view of politics, which its founder, the unique voice of the Washington establishment, Mike Allen, brought to the Playbook and then to Axios – adapted for a time when politics is everywhere in American culture. They recruited two high-profile journalists who left Politico, Rachael Bade for The Washington Post and Tara Palmeri for ABC News, to return. The two will join Politico correspondent in Washington, Ryan Lizza, and video journalist Eugene Daniels, in a broader flow of coverage.