Like most everyone else, we're skeptical Politico -- which along with Politico.com, runs a print publication and an ad network -- can keep the momentum it's gained during the Presidential campaign.

Surely our national attention will return to Scientology videos and overdosed and pregnant celebrities in no time.

Alas, we have a thing for contrary viewpoints and Politico bizdev exec Roy Schwartz was only too happy to share his. He gave us three reasons why political sites and ad networks like Politico will have a better 2009 than 2008:

The biggest spenders in political advertising aren't campaigns. They're advocacy groups and corporate lobbyists. Says Schwartz: "Advocacy in an election year is actually a bad year. You're usually dealing with a congress that isn't passing bills and isn't open to lobbying. There's going to be more money spent on advocacy in 2009 then 2008."

Traffic will go down and that's a good thing. Politico and other political ad networks characterize their readers as influential government players and activist-minded political watchers. Schwartz uses the groan-worthy term "poli-fluentials." Stories about Sarah Palin's wardrobe may drive tons of traffic, but they are also make it hard to convince advertisers that it's the Washington insiders they pay $25 CPMs to reach are doing all the clicking.



Political sites weren't selling all their ad inventory during the election anyway. The campaign frenzy generated more pageviews for Politico than it could sell ads for. With more advocacy money coming and pageviews going down, the percentage of page views that actually serve paid-for advertising -- the fill rate -- will be so much higher in 2009 that revenues will go up too, says Schwartz.

See Also:

How Politics Sites Plan To Survive Post-Election

Five Thirty Eight Bloggers Clobbering Mainstream Media