Can the Post maintain its legacy?

“The Post on its worse days is better than most newspapers on their best days”

Robert G Kaiser “We had the best weather, the best comics, the

best news report, the fullest news report. Today, there's a competitor who does every element of what we do, and many of them do it better. We've lost our edge in some very profound and fundamental ways.”

Investigative Journalism

Maintains proactive tradition

Variety of topics

Post’s Coverage of Crises Strengths

•  Focus on Washington DC bubble •  Comprehensive policy coverage •  Editorials provide factual

understanding of events •  Holding officials accountable •  Well organized website •  Supplemental & interactive

materials online •  Effective in national and

international news •  Learning lessons from past crises •  Innovative sources

Weaknesses

•  Focus on Washington DC bubble •  Subjective opinions in “news”

pieces •  Dramatization •  Lack of unique information from

the ground

Washington Post’s Foreign Bureaus

Conclusions •  Learning and adapting from

their mistakes •  Continuing to walk the line

within the DC bubble •  Maintaining a proactive stance,

emphasized online, especially with political coverage

•  The international coverage is adapting and improving upon mistakes, but the national policy coverage is the true unique trait of the Post and how the Post in-part lives up to the Watergate legacy