Political Wire

Political Wire is a political blog based in the United States. It was founded in 1999 and published by Taegan Goddard /ˈteɪɡən/,^[1] a former policy adviser to Democratic U.S. Senator Donald Riegle and Republican Governor Lowell Weicker, and the co-author of the political management book, You Won - Now What?

In an interview with PR Week,^[2] Goddard described the site as "a place where you want to start your day and then return various times a day to find out what's going on in the world of politics... the people who read Political Wire tend to be the political insiders and political junkies, the lawmakers and their staffs, journalists, and people who make a living in the world of public affairs."

Goddard is quoted in Making it in the Political Blogosphere on why he created the site: "I do it for the same people who, going back a dozen years, always wanted that political page. So, in a practical sense, it’s for people who’re very similar to me, who like politics to the same degree that I do and also enjoy it almost as a game. While some people might read the sports page first every day, there’s a whole group of people who read Political Wire first every day, because that’s something that gets them going in the morning. Those people, I find, are professionally employed in politics or public affairs. They work either in political offices or on campaigns, or are elected and appointed officials themselves. In many cases they’re journalists who cover politics and, obviously, there are also the political junkies out there who just find it interesting."

Readership

Political Wire is officially non-partisan. Goddard told Fishbowl DC ^[3] that people sometimes get confused by his politics because he's fiercely independent in his views and "not a joiner by nature." Despite the official political stance, Political Wire is ranked among the top 10 most popular liberal blogs.^[4]

Its principal readers may be summarized as follows:

• White (non-Latino)^[5]
• Mixed religion ^[6]
• Males ^[7]
• Self-identified Democrats ^[8]
• Between the ages of 21 to 65 ^[9]
• Highly educated ^[10]

In the Media

In 2006, Goddard formed a content partnership with Congressional Quarterly.^[11] The partnership was expanded in early 2009 so that CQ sold all advertising on Political Wire. The agreement expired in 2013 and the site is still owned and published by Goddard.^[12]

During the 2008 presidential election, PC Magazine named Political Wire one of the 20 best political web sites of 2008.^[13] In 2012, Time named @politicalwire as one of the top Twitter 140 Twitter feeds.^[14] The site has also been praised by political analysts such as Chuck Todd, Stuart Rothenberg, Charlie Cook and Larry Sabato.^[15]

Related sites

Goddard also created Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire,^[16] a site focused on the latest public policy news, Taegan Goddard's Political Dictionary.,^[17] which explores the language of politics, as well as Taegan Goddard's Political Job Hunt.,^[18] which helps people interested in working in politics and public affairs. On January 13, 2013, Goddard agreed to maintain a daily blog for The Week, titled The Cloakroom^[19]

References

External links

• Political Wire
• Political Dictionary
• Political Job Hunt
• Wonk Wire