Jared Kushner, wonder-kid publisher of the New York Observer, bought PoliticsNJ.com. Thanks to MediaRevolutionary for pointing out the casual mention of this purchase in a recent New York Times piece.

Remember back to the Fresno Bee buying FresnoFamous.com and you’ll understand why this is such an important move, which I’m now officially calling a “trend.” Expect to see more newspapers buy the niche Web sites that flourished underfoot because they moved slowly toward capturing an online market.

In the case of FresnoFamous, a microlocal site focused on arts and entertainment had built a loyal community that the Bee couldn’t duplicate. Same holds true for PoliticsNJ, which boasts a growing reputation and passionate readership that it secured as the first to the market with a statewide politics Web site.

In all of our markets, there is room for just one PoliticsNJ. Just one. So act fast or later you’ll find yourself opening the company’s wallet to buy a competitor.

Politics is one example of statewide niche coverage. But there are other possibilities for statewide coverage. In Florida, we at HeraldTribune.com are trying this approach with hurricane coverage, having launched niche site IBISEYE.com.

The hurricane tracking service enjoyed more than 80,000 visits during 2006 and we expect more this season. The site takes something our paper is good at covering – hurricanes – and leverages it statewide.

What is your newspaper an expert on? Maybe it’s covering a national topic, such as energy, the environment, education or aging. Whatever. Some topics are national. Some are statewide. And some are microlocal. Bottomline is there are a lot of missed opportunities out there. Act now, or buy later.