“Riveting Storytelling for All of America” doesn’t really feel like a slogan for a news outlet, does it? It feels like maybe something more for an online bookstore or maybe an audiobook app. The use of the words “riveting” and “storytelling” don’t really imply facts, they kind of do the opposite.
This strange sentence is the new slogan for the well respected and trusted news outlet The Washington Post. This change comes around eight years after their last slogan debuted: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” They had changed their slogan just after Donald Trump entered his first term as president in 2017 to emphasize the importance of newspapers’ role as the government watchdog. Which makes this recent change all the more worrying, and it is very reminiscent of Yellow Journalism which emphasized sensationalism over facts and led to a rampant increase in misinformation.
This change also comes directly after The Post has been dealing with some dissatisfaction among its reporters. A letter signed by 400 employees was sent to owner Jeff Bezos, discussing concerns with the leadership of The Post: “We are deeply alarmed by recent leadership decisions that have led readers to question the integrity of this institution, broken with a tradition of transparency and prompted some of our most distinguished colleagues to leave, with more departures imminent.” said the letter.
The letter comes soon after Bezos decided The Post was going to end its endorsement of political candidates, but, according to NPR, this letter was not concerned about that as the decision is “the owners prerogative.” The letter was more concerned with “retaining our competitive edge, restoring trust that has been lost, and reestablishing a relationship with leadership based on open communication.”
The Post has lost many of its long standing members, such as Ashley Parker (former senior national political correspondent), Josh Dawsey (former political investigations and enterprise reporter), and Michael Scherer (former national political reporter), along with many others. The journalists are moving to other publications such as The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal. The Post has also seen a large loss in subscriptions in these last few months, losing 10% of subscribers after refusing to endorse a presidential candidate.
The Washington Post is also reportedly changing their game-plan in the new year. Bezos has made comments about wanting to reach more blue-collar Americans who live outside of coastal areas, he also said that he hopes to expand The Post’s audience among conservatives. This comes with a recent sharp increase in opinion commentary that has been posted on the website and some attempts to receive and publish opinion writing from contributors outside of The Post. They have also been attempting to draw a clearer line between opinion stories and news stories.
There is also a new goal that The Post has laid-out this new year: to reach 200 million paying users. For comparison, the industry leader (The New York Times) has around 11 million and The Post currently has less than 3 million subscribers. The goal explicitly states “users” as opposed to “subscribers” so it is possible they will attempt to gain payment in different ways than they do currently.
The Post is also going to begin using more Artificial Intelligence, with it being described as “a key enabler of The Post’s success” by the chief strategy officer, Suzi Watford. She describes The Post as delivering “vital news, ideas, and insights for all Americans where, how, and when they want it” and AI is the backbone of delivering on this promise.
The Post’s stated goals are currently to strive for “great journalism,” “happy customers,” and to “make money.” Unfortunately, the way they are going about reaching those goals may be detrimental to their credibility and overall trustworthiness as a longstanding news institution.
