1. FROM PRINT TO PIXELS THE WASHINGTON POST’S TRANSITION INTO THE DIGITAL AGE A CASE STUDY Mark Potts CU Digital News Test Kitchen 12/7/11

2. IN THE BEGINNING A trip to Silicon Valley…and Japan

3. The Post should “design the world’s first electronic newspaper… “Our electronic Post should be thought of not as a newspaper on a screen, but (perhaps) as a computer game converted to a serious purpose. In other words, it should be a computer product.” – Washington Post Managing Editor Bob Kaiser Memo to Post Publisher Don Graham, Aug. 6, 1992 The Call to Action

4. September 1993: PostCard

5. “I don’t want to create another Compuserve. … If we can come up with an electronic equivalent of the crossword puzzle, I’ll be happy.” – Don Graham, December 1992 Not So Fast

6. “All we’re doing is inventing the future.” – Bob Kaiser, somewhere over Middle America, April 1993

14. HOW TO SPEND $250 MILLION “We recommend that The Washington Post create a new corporate electronic media unit to aggressively develop new products and services that will protect our current revenue base and create new streams of revenue.” – The Digital Ink Business Plan, October 1993

15. Washington Post Online November 1993

20. TWO DAYS IN SILICON VALLEY FROM MY NOTEBOOK, JANUARY 1994 Intel: “Very interested in cable to PC” Mosaic (seen at Hewlett-Packard) “Developed by U of Illinois” “Internet information browser” “Assembles multimedia info from various sources on the net.”

21. FROM PROTOTYPES TO PRODUCT WASHINGTON POST EXTRA/DIGITAL INK MAY 1995

23. THE MYTH OF NEWSPAPERS’ ORIGINAL SIN DID NEWSPAPERS FORGET TO CHARGE ONLINE?? (NO!)

24. Reality Check: 1995 “The marketplace is telling us something we may not want to hear.” – Washington Post internal memo, January 1995

25. THE MOVE TO THE WEB WASHINGTONPOST.COM IS BORN

26. WashingtonPost.com First Edition June 19, 1996

27. 2000: The Dot.Bomb Bust Newspapers Declare Victory! The Internet—Just a Fad! (We told you so) All Is Well! Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley…

28. From Print to Pixels Newspaper Industry Trends Revenue down 50 percent since 2005 Circulation down 25 percent since 2005 Newspaper sales: <30 million copies a day; 1940: 40 million Newspaper Industry Trends Revenue down 50 percent since 2005 Circulation down 25 percent since 2005 Newspaper sales: <30 million copies a day; 1940: 40 million

29. WashingtonPost.com Today

31. 12 million unique visitors/month 190 million page views/month 90% of traffic from outside the DC area Annual online revenue: About $100 million – But down 14% in latest quarter Print circulation – 1993: 832,000 daily; 1.1 million Sundays – 2011: 519,000 daily; 737,000 Sundays

32. WashingtonPost.com Today For the most part, a newspaper on a screen Print-first mentality in newsroom, business side Local coverage de-emphasized Strong competition: Politico, BGov, TBD Some innovation: – Facebook Social Reader app – iPad app – Trove – Online discussions – Emmy-winning online video

33. What Does It Mean To Be a Newspaper Today? Digital First When do you stop the presses? Aggregation and Curation Do what you do best— link to the rest Be Mobile/Location- Aware Hyperlocal—Own Your Market Niche Products—Focus Engage the Audience News is a conversation, not a lecture Use social tools Explore New Business Models How do we pay for news? Innovate, innovate, innovate

34. THE BEST STORY WE’LL EVER COVER

35. Is Journalism in Peril? No: Newspapers, magazines and broadcasters are in trouble Their fundamental business model is broken Journalism ≠ newspapers (or magazines, or broadcast) We’re in a Golden Age of Journalism There’s more journalism, being committed in more ways, by more people, than ever before

36. “No one experiment is going to replace what we are now losing with the demise of news on paper, but over time, the collection of new experiments that do work might give us the journalism we need.” – Clay Shirky Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable, March 2009 THE BEST STORY WE’LL EVER COVER

37. “All we’re doing is inventing the future.” – Bob Kaiser, somewhere over Middle America, April 1993 It’s up to YOU to invent the future!

38. “If you believe, as I do, that many of those institutions are so mismatched to the task at hand that most of them face a choice, at best, between radical restructure and outright collapse, well, in that case, you’d probably find the smartest 25 year olds you know, and try to convince them that now would be a pretty good time to start working on Plan B.” —Institutions, Confidence, and the News Crisis, Dec. 2, 2011