The Politico, Allbritton’s new national politics publication, launched this week. The design is clean (but not boring), Web-driven, and features chats, forums, videos, blogs and several other Web 2.0 elements.

Part of the mission statement (arguably more of a mission essay) is, “The Politico's goals are simple. Over the past several weeks, we set out to assemble the most talented and interesting collection of journalists -- established names as well as promising young people -- that we could find. Now, we will turn these reporters loose on the subject we love: national politics.”

That top talent includes former Washington Post staffers John Harris, now The Politico’s editor in chief, and Jim VandeHei, The Politico’s executive editor.

Also, according to the mission statement, “We won't usually be chasing the story of the day. We'll put our emphasis on the "backstories" -- those that illuminate the personalities, relationships, clashes, ideas and political strategies playing out in the shadows of official Washington.”

VendeHei, in a Washington Times interview, said, "Most media companies will say, 'Yes, we're multimedia, we've got a newspaper and we've got a Web site,' but most are built around the newspaper," he said. "They've got a newspaper; they've dumped the newspaper online. We're trying to build it from the other way."

The Politico has deals with WTOP, an all-news talk radio station in the D.C.-area, as well as with television news station NewsChannel 8, another D.C-area Allbritton outlet. The Politico is also working with the television news program “Face the Nation,” according to The Washington Times.

Interesting note: The Politico has a cartoon on the front of the site today with the caption "Roll Call Votes on The Hill will Never be the Same," a thinly veiled reference to competing Capitol Hill publications The Hill and Roll Call. A quick site search revealed neither of those pubs have stories on The Politico's launch. In January, WashingtonPost.com has only mentioned The Politico in The Reliable Source (a gossip column) and in passing during a politics chat. The Post did, however, write about some of their staff leaving back last fall.