WORLD'S MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2018
8.The Washington Post
The Washington Post
While digital media companies may seem to be on the forefront of
newsroom innovation, traditional journalism organizations are also
experimenting with business models and taking real risks. TheWashington Post,
a venerated publication dating back over a century, is looking more and more
like a technology-first media company. Traffic-wise, the Post has
been consistently eclipsing records—in November 2016, it exceeded 100 million
unique online visitors. The company has also been investing in technology to bolster
its reportage. It launched a variety of new software to get its content into
the world, including an in-house testing product, new ad offerings, and tools
to help reporters and editors act faster around breaking news. In
September 2017, the Washington Post revealed that
it had signed up more than 1 million digital-only subscribers, up
300% in just a year. But there’s more to the company’s current boom than
intrepid journalism: The 140-year-old paper, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos since
2013, functions as a software company as well, with proprietary code powering
its app’s augmented-reality storytelling features and moderating comments.
The Post also sells its robust in-house publishing platform,
Arc, as a service (which the Los Angeles Times and the New
Zealand Herald started using in 2017). “If it works here, most
likely it’s going to work for other large newsrooms,” says CTO Scot Gillespie.
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