Tory blogger Iain Dale, whose web journal has earned him a place at the Westminster commentariat’s top table since failing in his bid for Conservative election, has launched a new politics news publication - this time, in print. Monthly Total Politics will be available at WH Smith, Borders and Waterstones from this week priced £3.99, or on an annual subscription at £35.

And Dale reckons there’s plenty more commercial opportunity in dead trees than in the online media that have raised his profile, telling Press Gazette: “People think it’s a bit strange. (But when it comes to the blog, ad agencies) just don’t get it. We looked at doing this as an internet magazine but thought we would never be able to get the revenue to make it work.”

Dale’s Diary had been running ads from advocacy ad network MessageSpace, which produced now-defunct 18 Doughty Street web-TV site, but now relies mostly on Google (NSDQ: GOOG) AdSense, earnings him just £7,000 a year. The difference - as with all magazines, Total Politics is selling advertisers on the guaranteed audiences afforded by subscriptions - it will be sent free to all national and local politics. “You can’t do that with a website.” Not that Total Politics is without a website, however - totalpolitics.com numbers several blogs of its own, plus databases of speeches and quotations.

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