Jim VandeHei walked through the rain from the Post to the Jefferson Hotel for a lunch meeting with CBS News executive Paul Friedman. [Breitbart] was a genius at understanding how to read [a story] and then pull from it what would move the needle on the left and the right, says the former executive. His family soon relocated to Houston, Texas, where his father owned a small business. Among them was Jerry Fritz, who is still with the company. But theyd come to the conclusion that the Post under Downie wasnt nimble enough to produce the Internet and newspaper publication they hoped to create. Did he have any clue that Riggs might have been lax in monitoring foreign money transfers? VandeHei referred to the venture as Project X, according to an early recruit. Don grabbed those opportunities and did something with them. We worked and filed midnights on Saturday because thats when Henry Paulson was meeting and making decisions. According to Bass, Allbritton could give VandeHei and Harris the resources to transform it from a second-rate version of the Hill into the news organization of VandeHeis dreams. On Wednesday, November 15, the week before Thanksgiving, they arranged a meeting in Grahams office. He was 25. We anticipate considerable revenue pressure in 2009 due to weak consumer spending and credit market conditions, as well as the normal odd-year decline in political advertising, and forecast that Allbritton revenue will decline by 10% to 15% for calendar 2009.. It was the first major cutback the station has had to make. Deciding not to buy the nine television stations from the New York Times Company was a crucial decision for Allbrittonand for the DC news business. They were pass the bong conversations. The cancer treatment and recovery took Joe Allbritton away from his duties as chairman of Riggs Bank for more than a year. The congressional team excelled in covering the bailout story, he says. Pediatric Dermatology But that pace of coverage never stopped., Grim left Politico in January to cover Congress for the Huffington Post. And all the players had to get their stories straight. Then there was the companys mastery of the dark arts of internet traffic generationlearned from an unconventional source. And that ran counter to the secrets of Politicos success, where a lot of good ideas came from batting ideas around., Says VandeHei: This makes no sense. A high valuation could have made VandeHeis phantom shares worth more than they already were. And he was just wrong about that., A former member of Politicos leadership says VandeHei never bullied the owner. Politicos PR staff makes sure scoops show up on other Web sites and reporters get time on cable TV. Allbritton felt that Jim became intolerant to any ideas but his own, says a Politico executive. She has been published in several journals and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology and member of the American Society for Dermatological Surgery and the American Medical Association. In late 2012, Joe Allbritton died. I knew it wasnt the right move for us, he says. Politico hired Josh Gerstein from the New York Sun and David Cloud from the New York Times. VandeHei and Harris, by contrast, received what are called phantom shares. (Mike Allen, Times White House reporter who would soon join the venture, had phantom shares as well.) Colleagues considered Allbritton friendly, if a bit shy. Im just not comfortable with it.. Out of those conversations, we gropingly came to a set of ideas that led to Politico.. The young owner always said no. Want to more about Him? Staci Kramer of paidContent, which covers the publishing business, has written often about Politico. Weve had opportunities most people can only dream of. He graduated from Wesleyan in 1992 and went directly into Riggs Banks investment-management side. As the launch date neared, however, Allbritton worried that he didnt have enough firepower to dislodge its competitors. According to a former member of Politicos leadership, Mike Allen and Schwartz backed VandeHei as he repeatedly tried to persuade Allbritton to explore a sale; Harris initially supported the idea, too. 27 Robert Allbritton Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 27 Robert Allbritton Premium High Res Photos Browse 27 robert allbritton photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. He began urging Allbritton to consider selling a chunk of the company. Triple Crown series, the Preakness and the Belmont stakes. Dont expect any press releases. She and a few friends were planning a monthlong trip to Europe; she invited him to join them. Tolchin, a Washington reporter with the New York Times for 40 years, had started the Hill and retired to write books. He spent two years learning the television business. There are days when half of the print editions 44 pages are ads for companies such as Goldman Sachs. In Politicos early days, Harris was forced to apologize in print for an inaccurate article or two. He believed Politico was far more valuable than Business Insider and, according to a person familiar with the discussions, he proceeded to try and bully Allbritton into selling. He had gone to the Post from the Wall Street Journal and become one of the papers top political writers. VandeHei was at the top of the reporting game. David Rogers came from the Wall Street Journal. He had said, I dont want to run a newspaper on Capitol Hill.. His family soon relocated to Houston, Texas, where his father owned a small business. Says Fred Ryan: It was going to be a more modest endeavor than Politico turned out to be. The Federal-style estate has a main house with 12 bedrooms and sits on 1.6 acres. Founded in 1836, the bank had been called on to finance the Mexican War and the purchase of Alaska and to hold deposits for 21 Presidents. What the Allbrittons got from the Riggs sale is not public, but based on PNCs valuation of the deal at around $650 million, the family could have come away with some $250 million. The question on Allbrittons mind: Do you want to put a big bet on something you already have a big bet on? Robert sought advice from Stephen Trachtenberg, then president of George Washington University, which Robert had attended for a semester. Every Friday, Allbritton meets with news directors at WJLA and NewsChannel 8; then he gets together with Harris and VandeHei, as he does most mornings. Investigators reviewed Riggss diplomatic business and discovered loopholes and gaps in the way the bank monitored deposits. Jim and I started shooting the breeze, Harris recalls. In 2005, Riggs was sold to PNC Financial Services Group. And then the next step Id be like, Oh, these people arent much smarter than I am. He wanted to be involved in most of the decisions, Brady says. Dr. Elena Allbritton is a board certified dermatologist devoted to providing excellent comprehensive dermatologic care for adults and children. Joe, in his eighties, was retired but still a force, and Robert was running things. He wanted to learn journalism and called every newspaper in Wisconsin. Come over to the Jefferson.. Ryan worked in the Reagan White House and served as Ronald Reagans chief of staff when the President left office; hes still close with Nancy Reagan. Before Politico, VandeHei says, his only management experience had been being a night-shift manager at Little Caesars in high school. But over the previous two years, hed charted new income streams and driven impressive revenue growth. They have done a very good job of establishing themselves as one of the go-to sites for Washington political coverage, says Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News. Friedman discussed hiring VandeHei as an on-air reporter. Allbritton, who personally bankrolled the new company, retained ownership of 100 percent of its stock. He returned to Rosslyn and met with the team that had flown to Oklahoma City. For years, investors had approached Allbritton to gauge his interest in selling part or all of Politico. Be a part of this. VandeHei, 38, and Harris, 45, dont seem to be natural allies. WJLA-TV and NewsChannel 8 news operations have been squeezed back to make room for around 75 Politicoreporters and editors. He asked to meet with Harris. "Barbie" is Allbritton's wife, Barbara, who was a director of Riggs Bank until early 2004,when she and her husband resigned as directors. The senior Allbritton may have been overstating the case, but he had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer. ' But when Allbritton took a job at his fathers bank after graduating from Wesleyan University in 1992, he soon quit out of boredom. People liked the idea, VandeHei says. 1969) Law School: LLB, Baylor University (1949) Were done cutting, Allbritton tells me. But making weekends mandatory when nothings breaking isnt sustainable.. But the price kept going up and the deal never got done. He was my savior, Zander recalls. I asked Allbritton how he could have started up a news operation and be making money when so many newspapers and Web sites are operating in the red? The Justice Department and FBI looked into Riggss international-banking practices and charged it with criminal failure to report numerous suspicious transactions. Riggs pleaded guilty and agreed to pay another $16 million in fines. Since then, I have continued my follow-up visits with Dr. Peck at Dr. Skelseys office, even though it is at a great distance from my home. He had that look and demeanor and attitude of the son of an extraordinary wealthy and successful father, who was determined that hes got to find his own way.. After her internship in internal medicine, Dr. Allbritton completed a two-year melanoma research fellowship and her residency in dermatology at the Washington Hospital Center. On July 11, Harris announced that Politico veteran Carrie Budoff Brown will become its new top editor. The systems were out of date. I caught the entrepreneurial bug a decade ago when we started this place and cant seem to shake it, he said. He was in his seventies and in good health. And though he still owned the TV stations his dad had assembled, he took particular pride in his headline-making new-media outlet. He considered himself a citizen of the Washington Post. Don Graham had had a hand in hiring him in 1985. Every company has a small group of deciders, always including the CEO, CRO, and COO. Politicos extended leadership team comprised 20 people, he adds. It was 1996. I was not politically active in college, Allbritton says. Over time, this became a growing source of frustration for both men. The Vince Lombardi of the newsroom, says former Politico reporter Jonathan Allen. When Comcast bought stakes in Vox and BuzzFeed that very summer, it valued them at $1 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively. He also hit the speakers circuit, sharing stages with Moneyball author Michael Lewis, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and AOL founder Steve Case.
