Under a new publishing strategy, media outlet Politico is ditching its paywall and making a host of other changes, reports Variety. In addition to dropping its paywall, Politico is:

• Creating a single landing page for all of its media-related stories at http://politico.com/media
• Revamping its “Morning Media” newsletter
• Redesigning its Politico blog

In a blog post yesterday on Politico, reporter Hadas Gold quotes editor Tom McGeveran’s letter to subscribers about the changes:

“The importance in understanding politics and power has never been clearer than during this presidential election cycle. It’s not just that the individual players-from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders to Ted Cruz- have made a critique of the media a theme of their campaigns. The Trump campaign’s media manipulation efforts and seemingly constant cable presence has often been a defining theme of the past year. The way the media business is transforming is transforming the election process itself,” McGeveran said.

In an exclusive story on Variety.com yesterday, McGeveran said, “Media is where politics happens, and documenting and understanding these changes in real time is an irresistible journalistic mission.”

Why the switch? According to Variety, Politico thinks it can earn more revenue from advertising and events than from subscriptions, though the company didn’t offer details about how many subscribe to Media Pro, Politico’s premium subscription. Like the Washington Post, Politico is adjusting its strategy during a presidential election year when politics are hot, heavy and on everyone’s mind.

Insider Take:

Publishers like Politico continue to experiment with various revenue strategies to see what works best for them, and while there are a handful of workable business models, each company must tailor it to their specific needs. The New York Times, for example, uses a metered paywall and has experienced success. Others like the Dallas Morning News have struggled to identify the best model and have experimented with several, seriously challenged to find the perfect balance between advertising revenue and subscriptions.

We don’t know if this shift in strategy will be successful for Politico, but the timing is certainly right. In this crazy presidential election year where Trump, Cruz, Clinton and Sanders are duking it out for their political parties’ respective nominations, there are a wealth of interesting topics and stories for political pundits and reporters to cover. Politico can leverage that popularity, grow its digital audience, and deliver highly-coveted eyeballs to its advertisers.