The slide deck compares the 200 million goal with the effort to land a man on the moon – and it’s an important goal: The Post now has less than three million digital users; The Times, the industry leader, has about 11 million.
Most publications in the Washington Post’s peer group fall short of reaching 200 million people, according to data from analytics company Comscore. The New York Times, Washington Post, Axios and Politico all generated fewer than 100 million monthly visitors for the first half of 2024, paid and unpaid, although they saw more visitors each year. round the presidential election.
The Post’s new brand specifically mentions “users,” not “customers,” suggesting the company may be looking for more ways to get paid by readers. Internal data disclosed by The Post shows that the newspaper reaches millions of subscribers on platforms such as Apple News, social media and podcasts. This audience tends to be younger, but they are also more difficult to make money from, since most of the advertising money and customer fees go to other platforms.
This is not the first time in recent years that The Post has set out to expand its audience. Soon after Mr. Bezos bought the newspaper in 2013, he told Post employees to take advantage of the “gift of the internet,” such as global reach, to grow its readership. Later, The Post introduced a segment called “Morning Mix,” featuring stories clicked from around the world that proved popular with readers.
The slide deck that Ms. Watford has revealed that talent is key to the Premier League’s success, the people said. He described The Kingdom as an “AI-fueled platform for news” that provides “important news, ideas and insights to all Americans where, how and when they want. ” He also revealed the three pillars of The Post’s overall plan: “good journalism,” “delightful customers” and “making money.” The post lost approximately $77 million in 2023.
But many of The Post’s new goals have nothing to do with new technology. The slide deck includes a list of seven principles first introduced by Eugene Meyer, owner of the Postmaster General, in 1935. Among them: “newspapers must tell the whole truth” and “The newspaper’s responsibility is to its readers and to the public at large. , and not to the personal interests of its owners.”