Former Washington Post critic Tom Shales remembers editors he’s worked with.
For several what seemed like pleasant years, I was usually edited by a youngish man with whom I shared a variety of interests. That meant we could joke about the same things and he would come up with suitable, as opposed to idiotic, suggestions for things I couldn’t or shouldn’t say in a newspaper.
It seemed like a pretty good fit, and the editor appeared comfortable with the fact that my stories often came in perilously close to, or perilously after, the 6 o’clock deadline (which got earlier and earlier as the wonders of technology seeped into the newsroom). It seemed a minor sin because my pieces usually did not require a heavy edit.
I have forgotten now who broke the news to me, but after that editor had left the Post and I had been bounced around among others, someone gave me the 4-1-1: My friend the editor had HATED working with me. I was close to crushed. I was accustomed to being disliked, but not by someone I considered a kindred spirit and with whom I’d had a pleasant working relationship.
–From Shales’ “My Life With All Those Damn Editors” blog post
Articles about "The Washington Post"
Washington Post seeks blogger for Style section
The Washington Post's arts and living section, Style, is looking for a blogger, an internal announcement reads. Whoever lands this position may want to invest in a serious coffee machine:
Elizabeth Flock resigned from her blogging position at the Post last year after failing to credit another news outlet in an aggregated piece. Patrick Pexton, then the paper's ombudsman, warned against the high-volume, low-oversight blogging she and other Post bloggers told him she was required to do. Post bloggers, he wrote, "said that they felt as if they were out there alone in digital land, under high pressure to get Web hits, with no training, little guidance or mentoring and sparse editing."
This blogger should be able to identify trends, cutting through the noise of the Internet to bring context and perspective to a Washington audience. We envision at least a dozen pieces of content per day, with the knowledge that one great sentence can equal one great post.The job "will require early mornings to get a start on the day’s news and may sometimes require late nights covering awards shows and other live events," the listing says. In a follow-up email, Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron explained that "there will be a lead blogger, but that blogger will not be responsible for all posts. The entire Style staff and others in our newsroom, will write posts. Some posts can be as short as a sentence or as simple as a link."
Elizabeth Flock resigned from her blogging position at the Post last year after failing to credit another news outlet in an aggregated piece. Patrick Pexton, then the paper's ombudsman, warned against the high-volume, low-oversight blogging she and other Post bloggers told him she was required to do. Post bloggers, he wrote, "said that they felt as if they were out there alone in digital land, under high pressure to get Web hits, with no training, little guidance or mentoring and sparse editing."
Guidelines for aggregating stories are almost nonexistent, they said. And they believe that, even if they do a good job, there is no path forward. Will they one day graduate to a beat, covering a crime scene, a city council or a school board? They didn’t know. So some left; others are thinking of quitting.Here's the memo for the job: (more...)
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Washington Post plans ‘modest’ paywall
The Washington Post
The Washington Post will begin charging users "who look at more than 20 articles or multi-media features a month," Steven Mufson reports.
People who are "familiar with the Post’s online efforts" tell Mufson the company is readying "a new iPad application that it believes will help attract subscribers."
Previously: Washington Post will ‘probably’ introduce a paywall in 2013, reports the paper | Washington Post polls on paywall as Boston Globe adjusts its meter | Print advertising revenue at Washington Post was down 14% in 2012 | Why The Washington Post should (and should not) introduce a paywall
The Washington Post will begin charging users "who look at more than 20 articles or multi-media features a month," Steven Mufson reports.
The step, while modest compared to some other publications, still marks a major change for The Washington Post, which has long shied away from what is known in the business as a paywall for fear of driving away readers and online advertisers.
People who are "familiar with the Post’s online efforts" tell Mufson the company is readying "a new iPad application that it believes will help attract subscribers."
Previously: Washington Post will ‘probably’ introduce a paywall in 2013, reports the paper | Washington Post polls on paywall as Boston Globe adjusts its meter | Print advertising revenue at Washington Post was down 14% in 2012 | Why The Washington Post should (and should not) introduce a paywall
Howard Kurtz says before the Iraq War, Washington Post articles “questioning the evidence or rationale for war were frequently buried, minimized or spiked.”
I was working at The Washington Post at the time, and I took it upon myself to examine the paper’s performance in the run-up to war. It was not a pretty picture. …
Tom Ricks, who was the paper’s top military reporter, turned in a piece in the fall of 2002 that he titled “Doubts,” saying that senior Pentagon officials were resigned to an invasion but were reluctant and worried that the risks were being underestimated. An editor killed the story, saying it relied too heavily on retired military officials and outside experts — in other words, those with sufficient independence to question the rationale for war.
“There was an attitude among editors: Look, we’re going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?” Ricks said.
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Washington Post introduces sponsored content
Digiday | Washington Post
Josh Sternberg reported Monday that The Washington Post would introduce sponsored content this morning in an effort to reverse declining revenue for the news organization:
Josh Sternberg reported Monday that The Washington Post would introduce sponsored content this morning in an effort to reverse declining revenue for the news organization:
WaPo tomorrow plans to launch “BrandConnect” that will let marketers create content throughout the WaPo site and on its homepage. It’s kind of like Forbes’ BrandVoice, which lets brands post on the Forbes platform. CTIA, the wireless trade association, is the inaugural advertiser and will create content through blog posts, videos and infographics, according to a rep. The Post did not provide specifics on exact nature of the content or how long it would run. ...The "Brand Connect" section appears on the site's homepage, with a label that says "Sponsor Generated Content" and a link to information about the arrangement: (more...)
WaPo is taking a middle-ground approach to the creation of the content. A rep said in some cases marketers would create it, but the publisher would also offer services via its advertiser team. Editorial resources will not be used. The spokesperson also wouldn’t give specifics as to how, exactly, brands will be able to post content. Many publishers running sponsored content brag that the secret sauce is allowing advertisers the same tools as editors get. It’s unclear if the Post will go this far.
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Washington Post’s new ombud replacement ‘sounds like a customer relations person’
Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth announced Friday that the newspaper would not appoint a new ombudsman, because "The world has changed, and we at The Post must change with it."
The paper will instead appoint a "reader representative" to answer communications from readers. "We know that media writers inside and outside The Post will continue to hold us accountable for what we write, as will our readers, in letters to the editor and online comments on Post articles," Weymouth wrote.
How'd that go over?
The new job "sounds like a customer relations person," NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos writes.
The paper will instead appoint a "reader representative" to answer communications from readers. "We know that media writers inside and outside The Post will continue to hold us accountable for what we write, as will our readers, in letters to the editor and online comments on Post articles," Weymouth wrote.
How'd that go over?
The new job "sounds like a customer relations person," NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos writes.
As often as not, I disagree with complaints. But by taking them seriously, even those made by advocates, I find that it disarms the critics, or at the very least wins their appreciation. Listeners, readers and viewers want above all to know that someone with independent power in the organization is actually listening to them and acting on their complaints.(more...)
One, moreover, would be foolish not to listen to an audience as smart as NPR's, and even extremist advocates can be right. Receiving a pro forma response to a complaint, or having your complaint read on air, is a far cry from having someone believable actually investigate your complaint and get to the truth. The online stories cited by Weymouth are at least a public response, which is good, but the stories sound as if they could be written by the public relations department. If they are that way, it is unlikely to win much credibility among readers.
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Washington Post ends ombud program, ‘will appoint a reader representative’
The Washington Post
"The world has changed, and we at The Post must change with it," Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth tells readers.
Previously: Pexton: Ombudsman can get answers from reporters who won’t answer readers
"The world has changed, and we at The Post must change with it," Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth tells readers.
We will appoint a reader representative shortly to address our readers’ concerns and questions. Unlike ombudsmen in the past, the reader representative will be a Post employee. The representative will not write a weekly column for the page but will write online and/or in the newspaper from time to time to address reader concerns, with responses from editors, reporters or business executives as appropriate.Patrick Pexton left as Post ombudsman on Feb. 28 when his term expired; in a widely discussed column he wondered whether he'd be the last person to hold that title.
Previously: Pexton: Ombudsman can get answers from reporters who won’t answer readers
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Print advertising revenue at Washington Post was down 14% in 2012
The Washington Post Co. | The Washington Post
Revenue at the Washington Post Co.'s newspaper operations was down 7 percent over 2011, the company said in a release of its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings Friday. Revenue from print advertising was down 12 percent in the fourth quarter and 14 percent for the year. Online revenue was up, with a 6 percent increase in online display ad revenue over 2011. Daily circulation went down nearly 9 percent over the previous year, and Sunday circulation was down about 6 percent: "average daily circulation at The Washington Post totaled 471,800 and average Sunday circulation totaled 687,200," the release said. The release does not break out circulation revenue.
The Post's newspaper division had an operating loss of "$53.7 million in 2012, compared to an operating loss of $21.2 million in 2011," the release said.
The company's education division, which was hit hard by a federal investigation into for-profit colleges such as the ones in its Kaplan division, had a 6 percent decline in revenue in the fourth quarter and a 10 percent loss over 2011. Revenue at the Post Co.'s cable TV division was up 4 percent over 2011. (more...)
Revenue at the Washington Post Co.'s newspaper operations was down 7 percent over 2011, the company said in a release of its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings Friday. Revenue from print advertising was down 12 percent in the fourth quarter and 14 percent for the year. Online revenue was up, with a 6 percent increase in online display ad revenue over 2011. Daily circulation went down nearly 9 percent over the previous year, and Sunday circulation was down about 6 percent: "average daily circulation at The Washington Post totaled 471,800 and average Sunday circulation totaled 687,200," the release said. The release does not break out circulation revenue.
The Post's newspaper division had an operating loss of "$53.7 million in 2012, compared to an operating loss of $21.2 million in 2011," the release said.
The company's education division, which was hit hard by a federal investigation into for-profit colleges such as the ones in its Kaplan division, had a 6 percent decline in revenue in the fourth quarter and a 10 percent loss over 2011. Revenue at the Post Co.'s cable TV division was up 4 percent over 2011. (more...)
Outgoing Washington Post ombudsman: ‘My bet is that this position will disappear’
The Washington Post | Washingtonian | The Wrap
Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron makes a good case against the newspaper hiring another ombudsman, Patrick Pexton reports. Pexton will end his two-year term at the end of February.
“I’m not sure an ombudsman focused as heavily as they have been on a weekly column makes sense any longer,” Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt told Harry Jaffe earlier this month.
And indeed, former Postie Sharon Waxman writes in The Wrap, digital news sites like hers "don’t have copy editors, much less ombudsmen. (Instead we have spell check!) In the age of declining budgets, an ombudsman may be a luxury, sad to say." (more...)
Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron makes a good case against the newspaper hiring another ombudsman, Patrick Pexton reports. Pexton will end his two-year term at the end of February.
For one, he said, it is not as if The Post doesn’t come in for criticism, from all quarters, instantly, in this Internet age. ... Secondly, Baron said, there is intense “competition for resources.” ... He’s right again. It is likely that Baron will have to make further cuts in The Post’s newsroom. An ombudsman’s salary is like that of a senior editor’s. It’s a tempting target.Baron was previously the editor of The Boston Globe, which doesn't have an ombudsman.
“I’m not sure an ombudsman focused as heavily as they have been on a weekly column makes sense any longer,” Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt told Harry Jaffe earlier this month.
And indeed, former Postie Sharon Waxman writes in The Wrap, digital news sites like hers "don’t have copy editors, much less ombudsmen. (Instead we have spell check!) In the age of declining budgets, an ombudsman may be a luxury, sad to say." (more...)
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This week’s Washington Post layoffs were all on the business side
FishbowlDC
The Washington Post has laid off 54 people, Betsy Rothstein reports.
In a memo obtained by Rothstein, Chief Information Officer and product-development honcho Shailesh Prakash said affected employees "will have the opportunity to participate in a Separation Incentive Program that will include both separation payments and a company contribution to be used towards health insurance premiums."
A source there told me the cuts were contained to the business side of the paper and didn't take place on Valentine's Day. That person didn't know how many people were affected by the layoffs, though.
The Washington Post has laid off 54 people, Betsy Rothstein reports.
We’re told those given pink slips include Beth Jacobs, General Manager of Mobile, and Ken Dodelin, Director of Mobile Products. Sources say the entire Mobile Product Management and IT Project Management staffs have been eliminated.Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti declined to comment to Poynter.
In a memo obtained by Rothstein, Chief Information Officer and product-development honcho Shailesh Prakash said affected employees "will have the opportunity to participate in a Separation Incentive Program that will include both separation payments and a company contribution to be used towards health insurance premiums."
A source there told me the cuts were contained to the business side of the paper and didn't take place on Valentine's Day. That person didn't know how many people were affected by the layoffs, though.
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