Publisher of Politico Buys Capital New York

Robert Allbritton,the publisher of the Washington news publication Politico, said Monday that he had acquired the three-year-old news Web site Capital New York and that he intended to turn it into a version of Politico for the Empire State.

“I have very big ambitions for this publication: to do in New York what we did in Washington with Politico,” Mr. Allbritton said in an e-mail message to Politico staff.

The announcement came six weeks after Mr. Allbritton sold his family’s seven television stations, including one in Washington, for nearly $1 billion. He had said that he wanted to concentrate on digital businesses like Politico, and the purchase of Capital New York â€" for a small, undisclosed amount â€" attested to that plan.

“I believe powerfully that nonpartisan publications with an intense focus on a specific set of topics can break though quickly, editorially and financially,” Mr. Allbritton said in a statement Monday morning. “I’m excited to take the impressive work Benson and McGeveran did with Capital to the next level.”

The founders and co-editors of Capital New York, Josh Benson and Tom McGeveran, will continue to run it on a daily basis. Mr. Allbritton named Jim VandeHei, Politico’s co-founder and executive editor, to be president of Capital New York, and two other Politico veterans were appointed to newly created business posts. Mr. VandeHei, who will stay in Washington, said he sees his role as teaching “the tricks we have learned about voice, velocity, efficiency and business to the gang leading Capital day to day.”

Capital New York is in some ways an embryonic version of Politico: with a small staff of seven that hustles to break news on political and media beats, it has begun to establish itself as a competitor to New York’s newspapers and niche publications, at least among a core set of news fiends. But its rivals have far bigger staffs, and New York is arguably a much tougher market to break into than, say, Washington was for Politico.

“I know people will say it’s so crowded and competitive there,” Mr. VandeHei said, predicting a reporter’s question. “But I don’t think the areas we seek to own â€" the politics and policy of City Hall and Albany, media etc. â€" are as well-served as some might think. I fully anticipate we will make quite a splash with our hires and unique approach.”

Through the acquisition by Mr. Allbritton, Capital New York will gain an ability to grow the staff and, as Mr. Benson and Mr. McGeveran put it in a editors’ note to readers, “be much more ambitious than ever before about our editorial mission, which is to be a primary source of reporting for knowledgeable readers on the workings of the greatest city in the world.”

The deal closed in the middle of last week. In an interview, Mr. McGeveran said the Web site â€" which was financed by himself and Mr. Benson, both former New York Observer editors, in the beginning, and later raised $1.7 million in financing â€" is not yet profitable, “though revenue was ticking up significantly and we felt we were in a position to grow with the right kind of money behind us.”

Mr. McGeveran and Mr. Benson were seeking more capital and were open to a sale when Mr. Allbritton said publicly that he wanted to sell his TV stations and focus on digital businesses. So they reached out to Politico.

“Josh and I have known Jim and John for several years, actually, and have been talking with them about approaches to the news business since back when we were at The New York Observer,” Mr. McGeveran said. “So it was a very simple approach.”

The initial hiring spree at Capital New York will bolster the Web site’s current areas of coverage, which include Albany, but then it will look toward other topic areas, as well. And it won’t subsist on advertising alone: Mr. Allbritton’s plan is to add a subscription business, much as he’s done with Politico Pro.