I took a look at Politico.eu's front page, too. I noticed one dodgy reporting on Tory gov's latest "Brexit 'backstop' plan" and was reminded of the summer of '07, when Politico appeared out of nowhere in first row of a televised WH press corps gaggle. That was Bush announcing his nomination of Bob Gates (CIA dir) to replace Rumsfeld. Both events were startling, memorable.

Politico had only launched in Jan 2007. Turns out, behind the edgy, start-up "branding" were a couple of mainline WaPoo reporters with personal, portable WH press corp credentials.

I dug around tonight for this article to refresh my recollection of its trajectory. Take in Pro edition subscription rates for Belt-way "verticals." It goes a distance to explain editorial priorities for EU expansion since 2015.

The day before Politico Europe launched in April, a blog post by Christophe Leclercq, founder of the Brussels-based site EurActiv [!], began, "We always welcome competition." ... It's one of a handful of outlets, including the Financial Times, already covering European politics. ... Of course, Politico seeks readers with vested interests in Brussels news, not a mass audience. It likes to think of itself as less of a traditional news organization and more an information broker, catering to elites for whom politics is a business.

This "competition" with BREXIT has pushed euractiv and EuObserver editorial orientation off-center-right on a few issues, I think.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.