U.S. government agencies have dropped a staggering $34 million in contracts with Virginia-based news outlet Politico, mostly on subscriptions, according to data from USASpending.gov.
The payments vary in size and scope and come from virtually every government agency. The Department of the Interior‘s (DOI) National Park Service awarded a contract worth $862,025 over a period between 2021 and 2025 for subscriptions to Politico’s Energy and Environment (E&E) News service.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, another DOI subsidiary, also made a purchase order of $455,140 to Politico for an “online news subscription” over a similar timeframe.
The Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of the Treasury all spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars on subscriptions to either E&E or Politico Pro.
A subscription to Politico Pro can cost approximately $10,000, according to the multiple reports. The service is a self-described “customizable policy intelligence platform with regulatory and legislative tracking tools.”
The platform is staffed by a dedicated reporting team completely separate from their advertiser-supported products. The cheapest version of the platform provides subscribers directories for members of Congressional staff, detailed policy newsletters, bill trackers and additional services.
The highest end of the product, called Pro Analysis, also includes data analysis and touts political “intel” on procedures, people and industries.
When I worked in the Senate, we all had Politico Pro by default.
I never signed up for it. So I can only assume it was a blanket deal Politico had worked out w/the federal gov.
I never used it—not even once. Got 0 value out of it.
Gobsmacking to hear a subscription = $10k https://t.co/ZDs4RWq5So
— Sam Lyman (@SamLyman33) February 5, 2025
The government also spends a significant amount of money on subscriptions to other news agencies — The HHS alone paid New York Times, for example, over $26 million, again mostly for subscriptions. The Associated Press (AP), too, can count multiple government agencies as loyal subscribers.
It’s not just Politico. The Associated Press has been raking in millions of dollars in government money for years.
The AP’s bias also makes perfect sense. pic.twitter.com/RrH5JPykvY
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) February 5, 2025
While the large amount of taxpayer money flowing into media coffers has raised questions about journalistic integrity and independence across all recipients, Politico’s involvement in particular has been questioned.
Politico’s highly-niche premium products are the result of a vast network of in-depth reporting, hence the hefty price tag.
“The actual scandal in ultra-expensive DC news services (many cost $10-150k) is that these entities will dig up vital public interest news information and only lobbyists can afford to read the news, making these services no diff from an extension of lobbyist intel gathering,” reporter Lee Fang wrote on X.
The actual scandal in ultra-expensive DC news services (many cost $10-150k) is that these entities will dig up vital public interest news information and only lobbyists can afford to read the news, making these services no diff from an extension of lobbyist intel gathering.
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) February 5, 2025
In addition to being government-subsidized, Politico has also been sponsored by swampy advertisers like Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — of which Pfizer is a member — Google, Amazon, Facebook and the American Beverage Association, a lobbying organization.
In the wake of the Trump administration’s shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the revelation that the agency paid Politico for subscriptions prompted people to question the outlet’s independence.
Richie McGinnis, former video director for the Daily Caller, noted that Politico’s decision to boost an intelligence community idea that the Hunter Biden laptop story was “Russian disinfo” made a lot more sense in the context of their subscriber base.
This story from @politico finally makes sense! pic.twitter.com/1XS3yjca2i
— RichieMcG (@RichieMcGinniss) February 5, 2025
Two former Politico journalists told reporters that Politico leadership told them not to cover the laptop.
“I was told this came from on high at Politico: Don’t write about the laptop, don’t talk about the laptop, don’t tweet about the laptop. And the only thing Politico wound up writing was that piece that called it disinformation, which charitably could be called misinformation, at the least,” former Politico reporter Marc Caputo said.
