Politico Relaunches Magazine With New Weekend Focus on Examining Power

Politico wants to power its way into your weekend news diet.

The political-news behemoth, part of Axel Springer, is relaunching its longform journalism efforts this weekend with a new crack at a weekly “magazine,” or in this case a package of five to six longform stories that will examine the people and polices that shape power around the world.

“There is a wide world of people who may read the Wall Street Journal’s ‘Weekend’ section, or The New York Times Magazine who we think we can pull in with a package of content that is aimed at the theme of power,” says Alex Burns, senior executive editor of North American for Politico, during a recent interview. “There are audiences who want deeply reported, richly written enterprise journalism.”

The initial group of stories includes a feature from Sophia Cai that examines the secret U.S. political history of the World Cup. Samuel Benson will detail the racism Vivek Ramaswamy faces in his quest to be Ohio’s next governor.  Alice Ollstein and Megan Messerly offer the untold story of why the Trump Administration reversed itself on HIV prevention.  Ian Ward details a plan by the “New Right” to use VC-backed charter communities to Christianize America. And Jack Blanchard profiles Andy Burnham, the audacious British mayor looking to beat the populist right and then topple Keir Starmer.

Politico’s most die-hard customers, its “Pro” subscribers, will generally get an early 24-hour window to read the stories before they are made available to a wider audience. A Sunday newsletter will serve to bring the fuller package to readers.

Known largely for focusing on maneuverings going on inside-the Beltway (and in other global capitals), Politico has in recent months set its sights on a broader crowd. Last year, it launched “The Conversation,” a podcast led by journalist Dasha Burns, which executives at the time had hopes might vie with some of the venerable Sunday shows from the TV networks, such as “Face the Nation” or “Meet the Press.”

The new package marks just another way to make Politico journalism available to audiences in different ways, says Jonathan Greenberger, who was named global editor in chief of Politico in March. “If you want a newsletter, great, we have your newsletters,” he says. “If you want to go a little deeper in an interview we have got podcasts. And if you want that deeper dive into power, we have got the magazine for you.”

Politico previously published a print magazine, with its aim being to show off the organization’s ability to deliver deeper stories in an era when it was known for being a scrappy “win the morning and win the day” outfit.  “The newsroom didn’t have, broadly speaking, the muscles and resources to do big-swing enterprise journalism,” Burns explains. The magazine was created as a new stream of content to plant a flag for Politico in a space that it had dabbled in but not invested heavily.”

That was then. With 550 journalists under its aegis, Politico has people diving into policy changes and lawmaking every day.  To bolster its work, Politico has hired Kathy Gilsinan from Puck and named her a senior staff writer. Dylon Jones has been promoted to senior editor of the magazine. And Catherine Kim has been named a reporter, keeping an eye on people and trends influencing culture, and keeping an eye on East Asia.

The relaunch offers a chance, says Burns, “to deliver an even more distinctive and even more ambitious agenda.”