A Digital World ft. The Washington Post

We all have our favorite news source. Mine happens to be Vice because of its raunchier and often humorous approach to news. Their headlines are attention grabbing yet highlight the focus of the article. I also love their website layout because it is clean and consistent. For example, their photos typically have a filter that makes photos look warmer, colder, clearer, or hazier. It typically plays on the mood and temperament of the article. As stated in my previous blog posts, having a consistent theme matters when representing yourself as a brand. It’s what draws readers in and develops a sense of comfort and familiarity.

Though I get most of my news from Vice, there are occasional moments where I visit The Washington Post. Like Vice, I admire the simplicity of Washington Post’s website. I find it easy to navigate and admire that they chose to emulate the layout of a print newspaper.

The headline of popular stories for the day stand out more than the photo featured with it. In fact, the photos are moderately small and sometimes difficult to make out what the image features. This contradicts the approach many news outlets take, such as Vice, where the photo is the first thing that attracts the readers attention.

Another admirable thing about The Washington Post is its objectivity. In our current state of news media, many people joke about channels that appeal to certain political parties. For example, Fox News is infamously known as a right-wing channel who often states problematic or non-credible statements about the left wing or any other social movement that contradicts their ideology. On the other hand, CNN has a reputation of reporting news stories online that aren’t always the most relevant to larger issues in the U.S. or internationally. Of course, you can’t please everyone in terms of what is posted, but it is important to remain as subjective or diverse in opinions as possible.

There is a common trend in many news outlets to create content that may subtly or openly side with one perspective of a story. For example, President Trump is a common interest of many news sources, whether they choose to show disdain or praise towards him. Ultimately, this usually creates a biased outlook on news sources and will only appeal to certain audiences. To combat this, many news sources choose to incorporate entertainment, such as sports, food, and lifestyle into their feed. The Washington Post has done an excellent job in balancing this. This balance is most prevalent in their social media feeds.

On Instagram, most news coverage seems to be national headlining or entertainment news. There are some serious news topics posted, such as the Stoneman high school shooting. They also post “fact checker” posts which rate the credibility of Politicians statements. For example, on February 20th, 2018 they rated Bernie Sander’s statistic on gun background checks and found it to be dated and therefore invalid due to its lack of relevancy in 2018.

The Washington Post is also heavily reliant on pull quotes that will most likely garner attention and cause people to visit their website from their Instagram page. They also feature videos on certain posts, especially when they’re entertainment based or impactful. Most of their content involves photos that leave a statement or have an obscure message. This is more than likely in hopes of receiving more views. These images vary from animals, soldiers, Politicians, protesters, and food. There isn’t a consistent theme in terms of what is posted but they post frequently throughout the day.

Some posts are also humorous or light hearted. For example, on February 24th, 2018 The Washington Post posted a picture of President Trump pointing to the bald spot at the back of his head and claiming that he works hard to cover it up. There are also celebrity related posts on occasion. On January 28th, 2018 there is a photo of John Legend and Chrissy Teigen attending the 60th Grammy awards show.

Their level of engagement is low and restricted which is understandable since they’re a news corporation. Sharing their opinion is something that is frowned upon in journalism unless it’s specifically an opinion piece. A non-media-based company should not follow this model since engagement with customers is encouraged to gain popularity and continued user interaction to sell a product.

On Facebook the Washington Post has various pages related to specific topics. The main Washington Post feed is a combination of political and social issues. Their most prominent news stories seem to revolve around President Trump. On their Washington Post Style page, there is a mixture of news stories ranging from social issues, entertainment, gossip, sports, and media. Washington Post Politics strictly focuses on political policies, issues, and changes. Similar, to the previously mentioned pages, the others such as opinions, business, sports, investigation, your best life, etc. also do the same.

On all Facebook pages, there is no interaction with the comment section and each post is strictly a link to the article on their actual news website. There are no Facebook polls and very little advertising for other companies outside of the Washington Post. Videos and additional photos related to articles are in a separate category on the page from news articles.

However, the Washington Post posts multiple times during a 24-hour period. This can keep people engaged in The Washington Post’s news feed. They also seem to post relatively close to when an event occurs. This is a notable example for non-media businesses to follow to drive traffic to products they’re attempting to sell. Specifically, if you want to cater to the millennial generation.

Like The Washington Post’s Facebook and Instagram pages, The Washington Post has multiple pages dedicated to different sub categories on Twitter. Their main page seems to be a mixture of entertainment, sports, and international or nationally headlining news. Within one hour the news feed posted four different stories on March 5th, ranging from political, technology, crime, and natural disasters. This appeals to a few different audiences within the period of an hour which is not only diverse but a clever approach to remaining up to date with current news.

Overall, interaction is low in terms of re-posting's, likes, and comments. Typically, none of the three exceed over two hundred which is relatively low for their 12.2 million followers. However, this is understandably so since they do not interact with their audience in the comments section or repost comments made by users or other news media postings.

The Washington Post’s YouTube feed is customizable to its vast audience. They divide news up into sports and entertainment, international, short documentaries, perspective, fact checker, politics, most up-to-date news, and trending national news. Because of video categorization this may make it more convenient for users to click on videos they are most interested in.

Most videos do not exceed four minutes, which is idea for the average consumer who has a brief time span. These videos are very condensed and emphasize highlights from the news coverage. I would say that the videos resemble that of Instagram’s, which are short and brief. However, compared to Instagram these videos seem to focus on current events that are related to our political climate as opposed to aspects of entertainment. There is a sports and entertainment section, however, that is about the only entertainment category available. The rest of the sub categories tend to focus on the social and economic climate in the U.S. and abroad.

It appears the main videos promoted on the home channel are based on what topics are trending. As of now, the Stoneman high school shooting, gun control, and President Trump as well as other Politicians opinions on certain topics seem to be the most prevalent videos for the past week.

Overall, there is very little engagement with viewers, however, comments are left public. I don’t see The Washington Post commenting underneath comments which a safer stance. Under the about tab of each video, they typically leave a 1-2 sentence summary as well as a link to their website and other social media accounts.

As I’ve stated in my previous blog post, consistent posting is essential to a successful social media platform. Also, it is important to take note of your demographic. What kinds of articles typically garner the most positive response from followers on your blog or social media account? Do these posts include a video? Are these posts long or short? These are all important questions to ask before uploading your next blog post. Though, you may not be a news outlet, you can take note from The Washington Post on how to maintain a stable audience that recognizes your brands consistency and reliability.