In a recent memo to newsroom employees, NYT executive editor Bill Keller announced that the paper would launch a political website to ensure better coverage of the campaign.

“The migration of politics and political journalism to the web isn't quite new, but it sure is moving fast. We're moving too,” read the memo.

The NYT will establish for the first time a central political desk to supervise print and web coverage. Both platforms will “get equal emphasis.” The desk will provide breaking news continuously “for an audience that now expects its political news to arrive in full multimedia, interactive glory.”
 
At the end of the memo, Keller also announces what might be NYT’s next step: “Television is also on the radar screen; we hope to be able to say more about this soon.”

The Sun’s version, NYSunPolitics.com should be launched in March. The site should include political blogging, dispatches from political correspondent Josh Gerstein and stories from other Sun columnists.

According to Ryan Sager, the Sun’s online editor, the website doesn’t plan to compete with other New York dailies – the NYT. Instead, it will be aimed at politics junkies and try compete with such niche publications, such as RealClearPolitics.com and The Politico.

With the web 2.0 generation and politicians increasingly selling themselves online, political websites – newspaper-backed or personal blogs – are multiplying across the US.

Source: New York Observer – LA Observed through IWantMedia