RealClearPolitics.com Launches New Web Site, Announces Financing

CHICAGO, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- RealClearPolitics.com (RCP), America's political web site for intelligent opinion, news, polls and analysis, has served up a new web site at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/. RCP has released several new features as well as a streamlined look and feel for quickly finding America's most important political news, commentary and analysis.

"Some people wake up every morning with a raw egg and exercise," said David Brooks, columnist of The New York Times. "I wake up every morning with RealClearPolitics.com. It's the perfect one-stop shopping for the smartest commentary on politics and life."

Among RCP's new features is the Opinion BuzzTracker, which discerns those stories people are talking about most on the Internet. Another new feature -- named ReaderArticles -- allows RCP's readers to submit articles and vote on them. RealClearPolitics then publishes those articles deemed most important by the collective wisdom of the RCP audience. These new tools provide readers with intelligent filters to find the best stories from the thousands published daily across both sides of the political aisle.

"RealClearPolitics.com is a site that makes a credible effort to do the impossible: to provide a comprehensive, real-time (and not just Beltway- based) overview of the entire American political conversation," said Howard Fineman, Newsweek chief political correspondent, NBC news analyst and columnist for MSNBC.COM.

  RealClearPolitics.com's new web site includes:

  * Opinion BuzzTracker:  A new feature that delivers readers a list of the
    most popular news of the day based on activity in the blogosophere.

  * ReaderArticles:  Also a new feature, allows readers to submit articles
    and opinion pieces and to vote on these items.  RCP displays the most
    popular articles in the ReaderArticles section of the web site.

  * Topics:  A new feature that readers can tap to view articles, blog
    posts, transcripts and video pertaining to a preferred topic.  Readers
    can use RSS to "subscribe" to these topics and automatically get updates
    when new content appears on the website.

  * Morning and Evening Updates:  A daily morning and evening compendium of
    the best opinion pieces in the country, selected by RCP's editors.
    Readers can easily look at any other day of the week in case they miss a
    story.

  * Resource Center:  Tap into a comprehensive list of political
    transcripts, audio and video links from radio, television, speeches and
    debates.

  * RealClearPolitics Poll Averages:  Used by the political establishment
    for tracking major contests over the past five years; the new site now
    enables users to "subscribe" to RCP Poll Averages, and view related
    content.

  * RCP Blog:  A daily blog featuring the founders of RealClearPolitics,
    John McIntyre and Tom Bevan, other RCP contributors as well as guest
    bloggers.

  * Most Read:  A list of the most-read articles of the day.

  * Search:  Search for articles, polls and op-ed pieces that match reader's
    criteria.

"RealClearPolitics.com has become indispensable to anyone, in or outside of journalism, who's interested in politics, policy or world affairs," said Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard and a Fox News contributor.

"The new and improved web site will continue to give our readers what they have come to expect every day," said John McIntyre, co-founder and managing editor of RealClearPolitics. "With this new site, we are truly taking advantage of the web's interactivity to provide users with a more complete overview of what is happening in the world of politics."

Along with the improvements RCP has made to its site, a group of investors led by Alan Warms has invested an undisclosed sum in RealClearPolitics; the funds are to be used for technology and business development. As part of the investment, Warms' new company, Chicago-based Participate Media (http://www.participatemedia.com/), is providing publishing services to RealClearPolitics, including technology development and ad sales.

"RealClearPolitics truly represents the next wave of the Internet," said Warms. "In a world of thousands of news sources and 30 million blogs, readers want -- and need -- a trusted filter to produce what is most important. RealClearPolitics does just that and has attracted not only the most influential political figures of the day, but also Americans everywhere that care about the political process."

More than 500,000 unique visitors go to RCP and log a total of seven million "page views" every month.

About RealClearPolitics.com

Founded in 2000 by John McIntyre and Tom Bevan, Chicago-based RealClearPolitics.com (RCP) is America's political web site for intelligent opinion, news and analysis. Each month, more than 500,000 unique visitors from across the political spectrum go to RCP to take the pulse of American politics. With leading-edge technology, RCP culls the best columns, magazine articles, and web write ups to deliver readers news from all points of the political compass and covering all the important issues of the day. By tapping into millions of weblogs and hundreds of newspapers every day, RCP has become a trusted filter for anyone interested in politics. For more information, visit http://www.realclearpolitics.com/.

About Participate Media

Chicago-based Participate Media increases revenues and profits for media properties. The company provides customers not only with cutting-edge technology that leverages the interactivity of the web but also an array of revenue-generating services and tools. These outsourced services and tools enable media properties to increase page views and boost advertising yield per page, while holding costs steady. Participate Media also makes equity investments in and acquisitions of web-based media. For more information, visit http://www.participatemedia.com/.