WaPoBizJo Prototype: “Old and Out of Date”
Here's a true sign of "Post Apocalypse"!
The Washington Post is now gauging the reaction of subscribers to the prototype of a new business magazine that the paper may just launch. It's called Capital Business, and according to a description on the prototype's Page 2, the publication aims "to offer comprehensive coverage of the people and ideas that animate our local business community, whether it be a startup in suburban Maryland, a law firm in Washington or a Fortune 500 giant in Northern Virginia."
The paper is really eager to get feedback on its prototype—so eager, in fact, that it has an online poll set up to capture subscribers' input on where they get their biz information, via what medium, and what sort of biz info they're interested in.
The poll asks subscribers to check out an old-tree prototype of Capital Business that came together with the select subscribers' normal newspaper bundle. It asks the select subscribers to take a close look at the publication, but there's something of a qualification attached, and here it is:
Please take a few minutes to look through the publication and focus your attention on the look, feel, and types of stories within it, and less on the individual articles. Also, we ask that you disregard that the information within is old and out of date.
Indeed, one of the stories featured in the prototype is from Sept. 1, 2009; another is from Oct. 26, 2009; and so on.
Meaning: The Post couldn't marshal its nearly 700-strong newsroom to put together a biz-journal prototype with content that had any immediacy whatsoever.
But to the question about look and feel: I would say it's very nicely designed.
5:53 pm
There may be room in this trade publication area, but this prototype looks very early to mid 90s, in design and treatment. Want to launch a new media product? Show us the app first, or a la Sports Illustrated, show a video of how the new product could appear on a multi-touch tablet device, then release a beta website, then lastly (if at all), the dead tree version.
11:54 am
Let's be clear. Last year WaPo eliminated its business section. And outsourced half its remaining business coverage to Kiplinger's. In the middle of a recession. You know: a time when hard-hitting business coverage really doesn't matter. Now they want back in? How about restoring the business section and doing some serious, original coverage of local and national business issues.
2:36 pm
um, the business section was folded into the A section. it was not eliminated. local biz coverage has shrunk for sure but get your facts straight.