Many media companies today aspire to give their audiences exactly the information they want in the precise place, time and medium in which they want to consume it. At the moment, though, few can fulfill that promise. Congressional Quarterly is one of those few.

A decade after joining Congressional Quarterly as managing editor, Robert Merry was named CEO in 1997. With the Internet bubble still expanding, he said, “I immediately sought to create an online product.” He was in a head-to-head race against the industry leader at the time to convert an outdated dial-up information service to the Web. CQ got to market first, and Merry subsequently purchased what was left of its formal rival. “We bought the customer list and converted 70% to CQ.com,” he said.

CQ has succeeded for two primary reasons, Merry said: First is its staff of more than 160 reporters, researchers and editors. “We have the biggest, best, most powerful and most objective editorial team covering Congress, politics and public policy,” he said.

Robert Merry, Congressional Quarterly Division: Small Title: President-editor in chief Company: Congressional Quarterly Comment: Under Merry's leadership, CQ proves high-quality online journalism can make money from users as well as advertisers.

“Then we have state-of-the-art, highly functional platforms and navigation tools” that link subscribers to 36 services and databases where they can track health care legislation, watch videos of Senate debates or comb through daily reports on Congress.

CQ still publishes CQ Daily and CQ Weekly in print and online, but “72% of our projected revenue for 2009 will be electronic,” Merry said. Until 1990, CQ's revenue came 100% from subscriptions. Now, one-quarter of its revenue comes from advertising.

“When you can extract circulation revenue from your audience, you turn a lot of advertisers' heads,” Merry said. —M.G.