POLITICAL JUNKIES, REJOICE

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It's a long way from a memo to a magazine. Kristol is eager to make his paper "real journalism, with real reporting." Like fellow neophyte Kennedy, who has surrounded himself with experience-marketing executive Michael Berman and former Rolling Stone editor Eric Etheridge -- Kristol is calling on journalists who know what they are doing, including David Brooks of the Wall Street Journal. "If we don't occasionally upset conservatives, we won't be doing a good job," Kristol says, adding that he will not be mindlessly cheerleading for such conservative ideas as the flat tax. "We'll debate it before deciding whether to embrace it."

The Standard, which hopes for a circulation of 100,000, enters a crowded field on the right dominated by National Review, a biweekly with a circulation of 265,200, and the more sensational American Spectator, whose subscriptions have gone from 30,000 to 300,000 since 1992. "Any new magazine is a good thing,'' says Michael Kinsley of the New Republic. "But there's no crying need for another right-wing magazine."

For Murdoch, a serious magazine gives him the opportunity to counterprogram his image as a schlockmeister (Melrose Place, the Sun), although it is likely to cost him more like $20 million, according to media investor Christopher Meigher. But Murdoch has the deep pockets and deep ego that will keep him in for the long haul. Barnes says, "He's in it to have a Washington presence, not to make an instant profit." Whereas Kennedy, who has all the presence in the world, may be eager to find out what he can accomplish with it. --With reporting by Ratu Kamlani/New York