How The Washington Post keeps ahead of storytelling innovation

I often mentioned The Washington Post in my workshops and seminars as one of the most innovative newsrooms in the globe.

All one has to do is take a look at how stories are displayed to know that there is a multi-platform approach for everything from conceptualizing, writing and editing to design.

Each platform is allowed to present the story in the best way that it exploits the advantages of the platform in which the user will consume it.

At a recent WAN IFRA 2019 conference in Scotland, Greg Barber, Director of Newsroom Product at The Washington Post, offered us a glimpse of how the newsroom is experimenting with different forms of storytelling.

While I did not attend the conference, I read highlights of Barber’s presentation here. Two highlights from Barber’s talk at WAN IFRA stand out and make sense when you know The Post’s product as a user, as I do:

Experimentation at its best

“….many technological advancements have focused on user experience, including a new subscription platform that launched last month in New Zealand, new ad technology that uses subscriber feedback to customise the way advertising is served to readers, and better site navigation, exemplified by the ‘My Post’ section that lets audiences save stories for later.
But the advanced applications of technology represent only part of the innovation stirring inside the news publisher. With the goal of covering stories that shape the world, from politics to local news and business to features, the newsroom has been experimenting with more engaging ways of storytelling.”

Storytelling enhanced by team work

“We often have story collaborations at The Washington Post, including people in our engineering team.”

Barber mentions an example, which I already knew:

‘Gone In A Generation’ demonstrates how climate change has affected Americans in forests, fisheries, fires and floods, taking the public on a journey across America with sound effects, video that covers the entire webpage, and beautiful lighting effects as the user scrolls through the story on the site.

Take a look at the story and how it was presented.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/gone-in-a-generation/?utm_term=.637782e7c856

Norwegian newspapers and those big headlines

I am in Bergen, Norway, and always surprised by how big the headlines are on the front pages of newspapers here, including the financial daily DN.

The local (regional) daily Bergens Tidende seems a bit more restricted with its headline size:

Mario’s speaking engagements

Mario addressing the INMA 19 Congress in New York City May 15, 2019.

Here are places where I will be taking the message of mobile storytelling in the weeks ahead:

June 12, NEC Media City, Bergen, Norway, Storytelling workshop for Editors

June 13, Fortellingens kraft 2019, Bergen, Norway, Long form Mobile Storytelling for Writers

July 11, Florida Media Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, Keynote for editors: The mobile first newspaper strategy.

Mario’s weekend rituals…..

Monocle interviews me about what I do on a typical weekend (is there such a thing? Not for someone like me who is seldom in the same location twice. But I gave it my best shot, for what may come as a normal weekend, when I am home in New York! Enjoy.

https://monocle.com/minute/2019/04/27/

Pre-order The Story

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The newspaper remains the most powerful source of storytelling on the planet. But technology threatens its very existence. To survive, the Editor must transform, adapt, and manage the newsroom in a new way. Find out how, pre-orderThe Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.