Robert Allbritton, who owns Politico, ABC7 and NewsChannel 8, said he plans to “explore” the sale of the TV stations. The news was announced by Politico‘s Mike Allen in this morning’s Playbook. Playbook, in addition to being the feature that the White House wakes up to, is also occasionally a publicity hub for Allbritton.
“While it would be sad to see our TV partners in someone else’s hands, the 44-year-old innovator made clear this would be amazingly good news for POLITICO — and future new media companies like it that he plans to invest heavily in over the coming months. ‘This is the Golden Age of new media innovation, and I intend to stay on the leading edge of it,’ Robert said in an email to the staff. ‘So, I will be looking to invest in or launch media companies that follow the POLITICO model of dominating targeted coverage – and then using multiple revenue streams to profitably fund it.'”
Clearly it’s not easy to imitate the “POLITICO model.” Allbritton scrapped TBD, the online thingamjig that was supposed to zone in on local coverage but focused on all kinds of other crap such as how asparagus can make your urine stink, about a year after it began.
See the full memo from Allbritton here.