"While other newsrooms lay off reporters, Politico poaches from ailing shops like The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Dallas Morning News.

'Our goal in this thing is to create the brand' says Chief Executive Frederick Ryan. 'It's becoming the ESPN of politics.' "

Interesting look at how close we're getting to personalized printing presses…

We're keeping a close eye on this one, which offers both an interesting revenue model and some prickly ethical challenges: "In an early test of its concept, Spot Us solicited ideas on its Web site and raised $250 for an article examining whether California can meet its ethanol demand. That might not pay the weekly phone bill for a lot of reporters. But for its newest project, Spot Us has raised nearly all of the $2,500 it says it will need to fact-check political ads in the coming local elections in San Francisco. “We need 12 more people to donate $25,” the site said on Friday."

"Just outside the convention hall, the disparate threads of progressivism were brought together under one tent — literally. On an empty parking lot, progressive non-profit organizations built a two-story pavilion out of tarp and beams. The Big Tent, as it was called, housed the grassroots groups and new media outlets that are pressuring the Democratic Party to stay true to its progressive base. Meanwhile, new independent films like Battle In Seattle — which indict both parties' economic orthodoxies and are often ignored by major film distributors — found enthusiastic audiences at a nearby movie theater."