The Post’s 10 Web “Principles”
“Ten Principles for Washington Post Journalism on the Web” (PDF format, 0.2 MB)
The Washington Post and its dot-com operation have always had a tricky relationship. Newsroom staffers always complain that their stuff doesn’t get good enough play on the site. Dot-commers reply that the newsies don’t really get the Web. The bitching—er, dialogue—volleys back and forth between Post HQ at 15th and L and the post.com HQ in Arlington.
No wonder they need to print a roadmap to handling their relationship!
Memo and “Ten Principles for Washington Post Journalism on the Web” after the jump.
July 5, 2007
To: Newsroom Staff
From: Len Downie and Phil BennettIn a recent series of discussions with senior editors, we have worked out a strategy for furthering our collaboration with washingtonpost.com to maximize the readership and impact of Washington Post journalism on the Web. We wanted to develop and prioritize the most promising aspects of our partnership, address bottlenecks in our relationship and create the 2.0 version of the newsroom’s role in what is already one of the most successful journalism sites on the Web.
We have produced “Ten Principles for Washington Post Journalism on the Web” to guide the newsroom in this endeavor, a copy of which accompanies this memo.
These principles emphasize our commitment on the Web to around-the-clock breaking news, scoops and original Washington Post added-value journalism, in addition to multimedia and interactivity. They embody the same standards and values for our journalism on the Web as the printed newspaper. And they commit us to flexibility and change in newsroom structure and forms of journalism to adapt to the rhythms and opportunities of the Web.
The collaboration between the newspaper and washingtonpost.com on breaking news like the Virginia Tech shootings, coverage areas such as politics, the Nationals and the Redskins, and projects like Cheney, Walter Reed, Washington schools and the award-winning Being a Black Man exemplify our strategy. The principles spell out that strategy, leaving room for interpretation and adaptation as journalistic opportunities and challenges arise.
We have designated editors on Metro, National, Foreign, Financial, Style and Sports who will focus daily on journalism for the Web, working with the Continuous News Desk. They and all other assignment editors will go through a program of training in Web journalism. We will continue training for interested reporters and photographers in video for the Web.
Len, Phil, Jim Brady and Liz Spayd will work with committees of participants from the newsroom and washingtonpost.com on four specific areas in which we want to deepen our collaboration: local breaking news, graphics, arts and entertainment, and interactivity, including blogs, chats and hosted discussions. This is in addition to ongoing development of our collaboration on politics, photography, public opinion and sports, among other subjects, and the launch of LoudounExtra.com on the Web and an enhanced Loudoun Extra in the newspaper.
We will also inaugurate a Day Copy Desk, led by Don Podesta, that will copy edit live journalism for the Web as well as projects and enterprise destined to appear first in the newspaper.
We must continue to evolve the content and forms of journalism that we publish in the printed newspaper, partly in response to and inspired by journalistic evolution on the Web. We remain committed to strengthening the readership of The Washington Post in print while growing the audience of washingtonpost.com on the Web.
We’ve already made many changes in the paper this year, including the renovation and relaunch of the Health, Food and Home sections. There is more to come, including the debut of a new Style and Arts section in the Sunday paper.
In our discussions, we also took notice of a gap in readership of the newspaper between men and women with children at home; our research has found that readership among women with children is significantly lower. We are forming a committee to study the research, assess our content and make recommendations. Volunteers and thoughts about this are welcome.
***
Ten Principles for Washington Post Journalism on the Web
- The Washington Post is an online source of local, national and international news and information. We serve local, national and international audiences on the Web.
- We will be prepared to publish Washington Post journalism online 24/7. Web users expect to see news as it happens. If they do not find it on our site they will go elsewhere.
- We will publish most scoops and other exclusives when they are ready, which often will be online.
- The originality and added value of Post journalism distinguishes us on the Web. We will emphasize enterprise, analysis, criticism and investigations in our online journalism.
- Post journalism published online has the same value as journalism published in the newspaper. We embrace chats, blogs and multimedia presentations as contributions to our journalism.
- Accuracy, fairness and transparency are as important online as on the printed page. Post journalism in either medium should meet those standards.
- We recognize and support the central role of opinion, personality and reader-generated content on the Web. But reporters and editors should not express personal opinions unless they would be allowed in the newspaper, such as in criticism or columns.
- The newsroom will respond to the rhythms of the Web as ably and responsibly as we do to the rhythms of the printed newspaper. Our deadline schedules, newsroom structures and forms of journalism will evolve to meet the possibilities of the Web.
- Newsroom employees will receive training appropriate to their roles in producing online journalism.
- Publishing our journalism on the Web should make us more open to change what we publish in the printed newspaper. There is no meaningful division at The Post between “old media” and “new media.”
57 Responses to “The Post’s 10 Web “Principles””
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July 5th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
“after the jump”
oh knock it off.
July 5th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
[...] read more | digg story [...]
July 5th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
[...] the Time Magazine memo telling writers to buck up and start writing for the web. Now here’s another leaked memo from the print side of things - this time from the Washington Post. The major thrust of the [...]
July 5th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
[...] Washington Post has distributed a memo detailing 10 principles for its online news product. I can’t really [...]
July 5th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
[...] the Time Magazine memo telling writers to buck up and start writing for the web. Now here’s another leaked memo from the print side of things - this time from the Washington Post. The major thrust of the missive [...]
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Missive of the thrust, the major post: Washington this time from the side of print. Memo leaked another web now. Here’s writing for to start and buck writers telling time. Web magazine.
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[...] perheissä: Washington Post on joutunut terästämään nettijulkaisua koskevia periaatteitaan toimitukselle jaetussa muistiossa. “Nettisääntöjä” on kymmenen, ja kiinnostavimpia [...]
July 6th, 2007 at 7:15 am
[...] PARA LER com atenção: Ten Principles for Washington Post Journalism on the Web. [...]
July 6th, 2007 at 7:16 am
[...] We have produced “Ten Principles for Washington Post Journalism on the Web” to guide the newsroom in this endeavor, a copy of which accompanies this memo. [...]
July 6th, 2007 at 8:17 am
[...] Washington City Paper: City Desk: The Post’s 10 Web ‘Principles’ The Washington Post’s memo explaining the relationship between the print and online newsrooms. Number 3: “We will publish most scoops and other exclusives when they are ready, which often will be online.” (tags: journalism washingtonpost citizenJournalism print online) [...]
July 6th, 2007 at 8:54 am
[...] Washington City Paper was so kind to post an internal memo encouraging the WP and WP.com to play [...]
July 6th, 2007 at 11:29 am
[...] the Time Magazine memo telling writers to buck up and start writing for the web. Now here’s another leaked memo from the print side of things - this time from the Washington Post. The major thrust of the missive [...]
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[...] the Time Magazine memo telling writers to buck up and start writing for the web. Now here’s another leaked memo from the print side of things - this time from the Washington Post. The major thrust of the missive [...]
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July 6th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
yawn. I thought i read this five years ago.
July 7th, 2007 at 7:52 am
[...] Post editor Len Downie issues a set of 10 web principles and they’re good — as far as they go. They summarize: These principles emphasize our [...]
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[...] the Time Magazine memo telling writers to buck up and start writing for the web. Now here’s another leaked memo from the print side of things - this time from the Washington Post. The major thrust of the missive [...]
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[...] publica Editor&Publisher. Documento completo aquí. La traducción es [...]
July 8th, 2007 at 1:41 am
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[...] this is the roadmap: It is called Ten Principles for Washington Post Journalism on the Web (found via Editor&Publisher) and is "a strategy for furthering our collaboration with [...]
July 8th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
While I don’t always agree with the paper’s positions I have been a loyal and dedicated reader for over 40 years. For the past 9 years that has been via the web while I lived in Florida and Nevada. It’s great that you have taken the initiative to positively, and agressively move into news reporting via the Internet.
One thing that would be beneficial would be for your reporters in the various political sub-divisions surrounding DC become much more active into digging into what is really happening in those areas and reporting them as they truly are.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Number 9 stated: “Newsroom employees will receive training appropriate to their roles in producing online journalism.” This sounds like the “old” days of journalism (late 1800s) when newspapermen received their training on the job and according to their editor’s whims. It makes me think the years my wife studied journalism in college (and the money we spent on this) were wasted.
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