“We were on site, pushing that button every day,” said Ryan Heath, a senior correspondent who writes Politico’s widely read Brussels Playbook newsletter.

“It had a multiplier effect,” Mr. Heath said, “and that did not go down well.”

The Brussels attacks punctuated what had already been an unusually newsy first year for Politico’s European venture, which was started last April in partnership with the German publishing group Axel Springer. In addition to terrorism and security, subjects like the migration crisis, the ongoing war in Ukraine, grinding debt talks with Greece and the prospect of a British exit from the 28-member European Union not only kept the Continent in the headlines but also served to remind Europeans — and the rest of the world — of the importance of the often arcane policy debates taking place in Brussels.

Much like the original Politico, which was founded in 2007, its European incarnation covers its beat like a village paper, harnessing the immediacy of the Internet to deliver breaking news at a brisk tempo to a core readership of political and civic insiders. Its granular coverage of everything from ministerial summit meetings to regulatory committee hearings is leavened with tidbits from errant emails and restaurant recommendations, as well as revealing anecdotes about the biggest power brokers in Brussels.

“We don’t want to just write about politics, but about why these different actors are doing the things they do,” said Carrie Budoff Brown, a former White House reporter for Politico who is now the managing editor in Brussels.

As a digital-first news outlet, Politico Europe uses its website as a shop window. Politico.eu offers a mix of free news and analysis as well as a menu of premium Politico Pro subscription channels focused on topics such as energy, health care and technology policy. It is a hybrid of free and for-pay offerings that has been copied from Politico’s successful American operation, said Shéhérazade Semsar-de Boisséson, the managing director in Brussels. So far, she said, it has exceeded its shareholders’ expectations both for audience and revenue.