Politico plans to disrupt Australia’s political media landscape

Politico will launch in Australia later this year, extending its model of high-speed reporting and subscription newsletters into a new market.

The move will test whether Politico’s premium, insider-focused model can travel beyond Washington, Brussels and London into a smaller, concentrated media ecosystem long dominated by two local giants.

The rollout will begin with a Canberra Playbook timed to the next parliamentary cycle, followed by a broader build-out of editorial and commercial operations. The company is targeting what it calls Australia’s “political obsessives” and policy professionals , an audience it already serves in Washington, London and Brussels.

In an interview with Semafor, chief executive Goli Sheikholeslami said that while recent growth has focused on California, London, Paris and Berlin, parent company Axel Springer has been keen to expand into the Southern Hemisphere since acquiring Politico in 2021.

She described Australia as a natural next step, citing its English-speaking audience and its role in global debates on trade, defence and critical minerals.

“In Australia, there are a couple of people that do something similar to what we do,” Sheikholeslami said. “But… no one is doing exactly what Politico is about, which is policy intelligence and covering politics from a vertical perspective in a really deep way. We should fill the space before someone else does.”

The launch will be led by Ryan Heath, who launched the Brussels Playbook and was a key figure in Politico’s international expansion.

On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Heath framed the move as a jolt to the Canberra press gallery. “The Politico model is about to land in Australia. We’re coming to Canberra to deliver the news, the noise, and the deep-dive policy intelligence that insiders crave,” Heath said.

“Australia is central to the global stories that matter right now – from AUKUS [the Australia, UK and US defence partnership] to energy transition. It’s time for a high-metabolism outlet to match that intensity,” he said.

Politico enters a market often described as a duopoly, led by News Corp and Nine Entertainment. International brands including The Guardian and The New York Times have established Australian operations, but none focus primarily on professional policy intelligence.