If you are a regular reader of PubliCola, you’ve probably noticed some changes to the site recently. Chief among them, since it involves people actually giving us money, is that we're now running ads. Welcome to PubliCola, Phase 2.

Curious about PubliCola as a business proposition? We have a very detailed three-stage plan. Here it is in its entirety:

Phase 1

Raise some money from friends and civic notables, enough to get the site up and running. Find some smart, talented, younger writers, hungry for a platform to cover stuff they’re passionate about and turn them loose (i.e., exploit them). Write some stuff, particularly about news beats that the shrinking dailies have been undercovering—Olympia and our state’s D.C. delegation–and hope people read it. Break a story or two to build audience and create a little buzz. YouTube some stuff. Don’t take ourselves too seriously—the dailies already have a lock on ponderous self-importance. Write some more stuff and see what happens.

Phase 2

Sell some damn ads. Create a baseline revenue stream sufficient to support the site for the indefinite future. Suck up to our readers so they like us. Try some new things—don’t be afraid to fail. Write some more stuff and see what happens.

Phase 3

Also known as the pipe dream phase. Find some significant investors who aren’t too uptight. Raise some capital. Hire some more talented people. Poke some fun at Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat for being a stodgy stick in the mud who should have been more open to the whole Internets thingie. Write some more stuff and see what happens.

I know, it’s a pretty impressive business plan. And at least so far, it seems to be working: Considering our initial launch was just two months ago, PubliCola has come a long way. For a select but growing group of extremely brilliant and discerning individuals like you, this site has become a closely watched venue for political news (and, yes, gossip). We’re read in government cubicles in Olympia, King County, the city of Seattle, as well as in the Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C. And more broadly, we’re read by chattering class types with an interest in public affairs—at least the ones who don’t mind slumming a little bit. To all of our readers I say: Thanks, man, you’re brilliant and discerning.

I wasn’t sure anyone would read this site when we started. Our first week we had only a couple of hundred readers a day. Two months later, the site now reaches more than a 1,000 political insiders and civic players on a typical day, and readership continues to grow. And to judge from the snarky e-mails I receive (I’m thinking of you, Westneat), the traditional press, what’s left of it, is paying attention. Or they’re linking us and putting us on their radio shows anyway.

We’ve had some notable successes already, including Josh’s scoop that Ron Sims was resigning as KC Executive to take a job with the Obama administration at H.U.D. and outing the state legislature’s plan to overturn the voter-approved renewable energy initiative. (And we believe Josh is the first news reporter from an online-only publication to get press credentials at the state capitol, which we think is pretty cool.)

Glenn Fleishmann’s Monday “TechNerd” posts—Glenn also writes about tech for the Economist and regularly appears on KUOW—always draw heavy interest. And Chris Kissell is the only reporter at any publication covering our state’s D.C. delegation during this historic 111^th Congress.

Our stable of “Nerds”—FoodNerd, MusicNerd, FilmNerd, NerdNerd—is producing a significant amount of cultural content, and we hope to expand their presence on the site going forward. We’ve also added new features, such as: PubliCola TV, Kissell’s weekly video roundup of delegation-related news; a weekly podcast, “Money Where Mouth Is,” featuring an interview with an all-star in the trenches of non-profit work; and we’ve even got a regular comic, PubliComix. 

I don’t want to slather it on too thick: PubliCola remains very much a work in progress, and we have a long way to go to make this online news effort a success. The critical feedback we’ve received from friends and readers about how we can improve the look and organization of the site have a lot of merit. We’re working on it. These things take time (and money). For the most part, though, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and there’s a lot of recognition that the potential upside for PubliCola is enormous.

To keep the site going—and growing—we need Phase 2 to be a success. We’re operating on a shoestring right now, and we can’t do that forever. We’ve begun reaching out to organizations involved in local political and civic affairs to ask them to purchase an ad on PubliCola. Brilliant, important people such as yourself, and the brilliant, important organizations you represent (I now refer you to the “Suck Up” part of Phase 2 above). Some especially brilliant and important organizations have already bought ads (thank you, especially brilliant and important organizations!), and we’ve got several more ads from brilliant and important organizations in the pipeline. But we need even more brilliant and important organizations to get involved in order to build a brilliant and important revenue stream to keep PubliCola going for the long term.

Why advertise? First, you’ll reach a targeted audience of influential people in cubicles involved in government, politics, and civic affairs. Use an ad on PubliCola to push a specific message, drive traffic to your web site, or just to build recognition among a core circle of those who matter in the world of Washington State politics. If you have business before government, or an interest in what it does, you’ll get value from your ad being featured here.

Second, and perhaps just as important (certainly to us), by purchasing an ad you’ll be ensuring PubliCola survives and expands.

Just to be clear, here’s what you won’t get by purchasing an ad: Favorable treatment. Yes, we’re generally liberal, if a bit contrarian, and we like to highlight the work of groups we respect. But this site is not partisan. We’re not an arm of the Democratic Party, nor will we hold back from criticizing elected officials (including the ones we like) when we feel it’s merited (just ask Democratic Speaker of the House Frank Chopp what he thinks of Josh).

PubliCola is not going to front for any organization or politician. In fact, I can almost guarantee that at some point, one of us—probably Josh—will write something that will piss off some or all of our advertisers. When that happens, I hope they’ll be cool about it, but if not, and they decide to pull their ads, so be it. That is just the way it has to be.

One quick word on my own involvement in PubliCola. This is a part-time thing for me. My (paying) day job is doing political communications consulting work. But on this site I am not going to write about anything with which I'm involved. Sometimes I pitch Josh on stuff I’m working on, just as I would other reporters or bloggers. Sometimes he bites on my pitches, sometimes not. Nor can I stop him from writing critical things about people or organizations I work for (though Josh, please don’t overdo it). Also, because of my political work, I am privy to the occasional secret. I don’t tell those secrets to Josh. It’s an unusual arrangement, but really not that complicated.

Oh, and quickly: What does the name mean? It’s a remote reference to the Federalist Papers. We consider James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to be the first bloggers for the 85 pro-Constitution screeds they published serially, and anonymously, in early American newspapers. They all took the pseudonym Publius, a nod to Publius Valerius Publicola, one of the founders of the Roman Republic. Josh is apparently hung up on the Federalist Papers. Hence, the name.

The PubliCola Team

 

Anyway, enough already. If you run a brilliant and important organization, constituency group, political consulting or lobbying firm, or a big p.r. firm and want to get your clients’ message out to a brilliant, important, and politically connected audience, buy a damn ad. Believe me, it’s not expensive. PubliCola is young, lean and hungry, and for now we’re a cheap and easy date (though hopefully not forever—after all, we have our reputations to consider). If you are interested in learning more, contact our whiz bang ad guy, Gabe Meyer, at [email protected].

Now Josh, go write some stuff and let’s see what the hell happens.