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The Politics of Digital Publishing: Ryan Mannion of Politico

Written by Peter Devereaux | Nov 12, 2012 6:00:00 AM

The challenges to those enterprises in the political news publishing vertical are unique - particularly on the technical side. Website Magazine asked a few questions of Ryan Mannion, the CTO of Politico on his own responsibilities managing one of the largest political-focused digital destinations on the Web, where within his enterprises' IT investment is focused, about industry growth trends he and Politico are witnessing, and how to scale from a technical perspective.


If you are resource restricted but want a web, tablet and mobile presence, I would seriously take a look at responsive web design. This will cut down your costs and provide the best experience to your users. An example of a well done responsive design (other than POLITICO Pro) is the Boston Globe. The Globe has done an amazing job and was one of the first media companies to accomplish this practice on a major website.

Not that this should be any surprise, but I would also focus heavily on building social networks, getting as many followers as possible and reaching them at least 18 hours a day, as people tend to have staggered reading habits. Additionally, I would increase the number of posts during the heavy reading times (noon, 6-7pm and 10-11pm). Again, if you are resource restricted, there are tools available to do this via Facebook (internal) and Twitter, through HootSuite or others.