About Spot-On

Welcome to Spot-On.com, a website dedicated to politics. Our advertising network, Pinpoint Persuasion, provide political consultants and campaign managers with the tools they need for 21st Century politics. Through our web-based syndication service we offer a range of independent, intelligent and insightful looks at politics and current events for sale to larger news outlets across the web.

Spot-on's Pinpoint Persuasion:
THE Political Ad Network

Our advertising network specializes in connecting political advertising, cause-marketing advertising and corporate image advertising messages with the right web sites, making sure the advertising is placed on sites that will enhance the candidate, cause or corporation buying the ads.

If you run a political campaign, do public affairs or crisis PR, place advocacy ad buys for unions, corporations or non-profits, Spot-on's Pinpoint Persuasion buying site should be your first stop for Internet advertising and messaging.

Unlike radio, television and print advertising, on-line advertisements can deliver - and track - a specific message to a specific audience. Our rich and powerful database includes a long list of established news outlets with demographic information and brief reviews of the sites' editorial and political orientation. We can find voters using a range of targeting techniques making Pinpoint Persuasion the only site you'll need to plan a campaign's on-line media buys. Our technology and data help you make sure your message is targeted at a receptive audience at the right time in a campaign cycle.

Want more detailed information? Check out our FAQ.

Out customer list is growing all the time. In the 2008 election, Spot-on placed ads for a range of campaigns including "No on 8" as well as "Save San Francisco General Hospital" targeting their on-line ad buys to have the most impact on voters.

Our VP of sales, Fran McInerney, leads this effort. With more than 20 years of experience in political ad sales in Northern California, Fran's got a wide range of experience and the background to help you place your on-line ads where they'll get the most impact. Drop her a line and she'll tell you how Spot-on's Precise Persuasion can help you get your message to the right voters and readers.

In 2008, Spot-on also helped campaigns join social networks like Facebook. We built and provided technical support for Facebook "doorhangers," a seamless applications that runs on the Facebook platform and allow voters to talk to voters. Greg Dewar our Facebook Field Organizer can assist with the development and design that helps your campaign talk to voters more efficiently.

Our Team

Spot-on's founding team is a talented group of individuals who know, understand and like politics. Combined, we have more than 70 years of experience in U.S. politics and know - from the ground up - almost everything there is to know about campaigns and elections.

Chris Nolan

Chris Nolan is the editor and co-founder of Spot-on.com. With more than 20 years reporting experience, Nolan's work is well known to tech-savvy and politically astute readers. Her weekly Silicon Valley column, "Talk is Cheap" debuting in 1997 at the beginnings of the Internet stock boom, was well regarded for its humor, insight and news value. As Spot-on's founder and editor, Nolan speaks frequently on technology, politics and media as well as on the impact of stand-alone journalism - a phrase she has coined to describe the work that experienced and professional journalists are doing on the Web.

Before moving to San Francisco, Nolan lived and worked in Washington, D.C., and covered Congress and the FCC for a series of television industry trade magazines.

She holds a B.A. degree from Barnard College, Columbia University. You can email Chris at CNolan[at]spot-on.com

Fran McInerney

Spot-on VP of Sales Fran McInerney has spent the last 23 years in the cable advertising industry specializing in political advertising, most recently with Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable operator. With a passion for politics she entered the field long before political advertising was a budget line at most TV and Radio stations, developed and built the current structure for how selling political advertising is sold and marketed by Comcast. Her leadership kept her San Francisco Bay area division the largest grossing division for political advertising in the entire company.

She has 20 years of AAAA agency experience working with major national accounts and a tremendous depth of media/research knowledge. You can email Fran at FMcInerney[at]spot-on.com

Brian Smith

Brian Smith is Spot-on's VP of Business Strategy and Development. As director of advertising marketplaces at Yahoo, he represented the company's media sales division in the development, negotiation, and implementation of Yahoo's advertising partnership with consortium of 300+ US newspapers and managed a12-person team in the design and delivery of key advertising monetization metrics, both on and off Yahoo's owned and operated network.

At Yahoo he also acted as media sales delegate for corporate development efforts. evaluating ad marketplaces, developing sales strategy, analyzing financial impacts and participating in diligence activities and led business assessment of new advertising products. Before joining Yahoo, he was a case team leader with Bain Consulting.

Brian has an MBA from Wharton and a BS in Industrial Management and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University. You can email Brian at BSmith[at]spot-on.com

Greg Dewar

Greg Dewar is Spot-on's Facebook Field Organizer. He has 15 years of experience in the political consulting business, conceiving and producing media campaigns for clients all around the country.

He is in charge of selling our Facebook applications which allow candidates and causes to get the most out of their presence on that social networking site. He is also helping to develop outreach and online campaigns for Spot-On's Pinpoint Persuasion ad service, building our customer base and expanding our reach with campaigns of all types.

Greg also writes the popular N Judah Chronicles, a whimsical website chronicling San Francisco urban life from the perspective of a daily MUNI rider. The site was recently voted "Best Local Blog" by the readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

He has a B.A. in history from the University of California, Santa Cruz. You can email Greg at GDewar[at]spot-on.com

Spot-on's History

Spot-On.com started as a one-woman website in 2003 when political and business journalist Chris Nolan decided to stop yelling at her TV set and started writing and publishing political commentary. Nolan called her work "stand alone journalism" to describe what happens when inexpensive Internet publishing tools get in the hands of experienced writers and reporters. She's been a pioneer in thinking and developing business and editorial models suited to the networked news environment of the 21st Century, combining the use of new technologies with traditional - and tested - values and practices.

In 2005, Nolan launched Spot-on.com with three writers. Today, the service has a growing group of syndication clients and 10 writers along with a sophisticated ad network designed to serve political campaign managers and consultants.

We offer two basic editorial packages.

Our current op-ed and politics roster includes:

• Health care and public health policy writer Matthew Holt writes about those issues, clearly and with humor.
• Southern California Republican Scott Olin Schmidt offers a business-oriented Republican's take on politics, from California to Washington, D.C.
• Christopher Allbritton reports on Lebanon and the Middle East from his current home in Beirut. Allbritton, founder of the well-respected Back-to-Iraq blog is and experienced international writer and reporter.
• Mike Spinney writes about politics and religion - he's an evangelical Christian and a Libertarian - from the heart of Massachusetts.
• Nolan who writes about politics from a feminist perspective. She is the site's editor and founder.

Our feature line-up is just as deep. It includes:

• Kevin Weeks who writes about food for Spot-on. A chef in Knoxville, Tenn., Kevin knows his way around a kitchen - one that uses all the good stuff: fat, flesh and flavoring.
• From Milan, the gimlet-eyed Nicole Martinelli writes about European culture and politics.
• Experienced journalist, Deborah Klosky, who writes about modern-day motherhood from a feminist perspective.
• And from just west of Washington, D.C. Jeanne Jackson writes about pop culture, raising kids and just how wacky the world can be if you let it get to you.
• From Delhi, India, Gopika Kaul writes about the country where she was born and recently returned, talking about how India is changing and why.
• P.J. Rodriguez loves pop culture - movies and videos, music and television, games and goofiness. He look at what we like and why we like it.

In earlier years, Beijing-based writer Jonathan Ansfield, satirst Christopher Brauchli and political conservative Josh Trevino, wrote regularly for Spot-on, helping to expand the depth and reach of the site. Sreenwriter Marshal Zeringue served briefly as our book and film critic.

Syndication

Spot-on's talented writers are selected for their smarts, their strong points of view and their ability to add intelligence and insight to any page - print or web - where they appear. And their work is for sale.

Our rates are reasonable and we offer a range of introductory services and pricing. Our advertising-free, full-text RSS, Atom or XML feeds can be tailored to your editorial and financial needs and we can give you nightly edit budgets (with archive access) as well as other timely news-oriented other reminders. Spot-on helps editors and producers create vibrant websites and balanced, provocative op-ed and feature pages that bring readers back, again and again.

In 2008, we crafted a number of syndication agreements. Our current client roster includes the East Bay Express, an alternative weekly in Northern California as well as other outlets.

Interested in learning more? Write to Chris Nolan.

Corrections Policy

If you find a factual error on any of our site pages, please tell us as soon as possible so that we can make the appropriate corrections quickly. If you have a complaint or comment to make about something you've read on the site, please direct it to the individual editorial writer. Writers thrive on mail and others' opinions but if you would like to keep your correspondence private, please alert the writer to that fact.

Disagreements about interpretation and emphasis, however, are just that and will be treated as such. For that reason, we encourage correspondence between readers and writers. If, however, you don't feel your comments have been adequately addressed by the writer, please contact Spot-on.com editor Chris Nolan.

Writing Opportunities

We are constantly on the hunt for new writers and new voices to add to our site and offer to larger out-lets.

If you think you've got what it takes - a clear point of view, a smart way of looking at the world - send an email with pointers to stuff you've written or sites where you regularly comment to editor and founder Chris Nolan.

We also have limited number of school-year internships for students in public policy, journalism or international affairs in the San Francisco Bay area. Send a brief email to editor and founder Chris Nolan if you're interested in helping out.

Privacy

If you have signed up for our email alerts or newsletter, we will not resell your address to any third party. We will not use it for sales or promotional purposes.

Copyright (c) 2006. All rights reserved, SteelWill, Inc. SPOT ON is a trademark of SteelWill, Inc.