Results tagged “washingtonpost>”

After just a year on the job, it's hard to say that Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli hasn't made his presence known.

We all make mistakes. But as this editor can firmly attest, we often rely on our most trusted commenters to save us from our small foibles. Apparently, so do the contributors at the Post's D.C. Wire blog -- DCist commenter extraordinaire and local blogger IMGoph spotted this gem on a post about yesterday's gas leak at Thomas Elementary School in Northeast:

Local blogger Ben Somberg writes in to let us know he's had just about enough of front page stories about Facebook from the Washington Post. And he's got the evidence to prove he's not just a big whiner: since September of 2006, the Post has now devoted A1 space to stories about the social networking site a total of 15 times, by Somberg's count. Today's story, penned by youth reporter Ian Shapira, focuses on those rare individuals who aren't too old for Facebook, but still refuse to participate. Says Somberg: "It's alright, though I don't see exactly what it adds -- I don't leave the story having learned much I didn't already know. It belongs inside, not on Page 1."

Click on over to www.washingtonpost.com/local to take a look at the new Washingtonpost.com 'Local' homepage, which launched in Beta at 4 p.m. this afternoon. Surprisingly enough, the design actually does look significantly different from the regular home page, a far cry from previous WaPo attempts to differentiate between the local and national editions of the paper by offering minor, barely noticeable differences for online readers with local IP addresses.

New trends and fads follow a predictable path in the Washington area. First there are pioneers, next come early adopters, then the general public and eventually, some time after that, the Washington Post. Once the Post gets around to publishing an article on the new trend or fad, you can bet that it's only a matter of months before it's completely over.

It's day two of the Washington Post raking the Redskins and their ticket office over the coals. When the paper ran a front page feature on “The Toughest Ticket in Town” yesterday, there was no indication that readers were being treated to an investigative series. We got the story, we got the Redskins' lawyer responding by saying that the Post needs "to sell newspapers, and God love 'em, circulation is down," and we were ready to move on, still loving—or loathing—the burgundy and gold as we see fit.

"Nationals' Unexpected Success Sends Washington Post Into A Fugue State"

Hating on Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza's recent failed attempts at making humorous online videos for washingtonpost.com has been a popular pastime of late, but comedian Andy Cobb has served up the best rebuke to date (via AMERICABlog). Brutal, and unlike the Milbank/Cillizza efforts, actually funny.

Some time ago I asked the DCist writing staff to avoid using the term "hipster" whenever possible. It's a word we all hear and say plenty, but I'm never quite sure what different people really mean by it. Is it just someone who wears skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors? Is it people who compost and keep chickens in their urban gardens? Is any man under 35 who has unusual facial hair a hipster? What's the difference between a scenester and hipster? Are you talking about these people? Or these people? Until I figure out some satisfactory answers, I prefer our writers be more specific about what they really mean. Using "hipster" just seems lazy and vague.

You know, a wise man once told me that if you make it really easy for someone to do something they feel compelled to do, then they'll probably do it -- despite all warnings to the contrary. Put a warm cookie in front of a child and tell them it will burn their mouth, and the kid will still grab and chomp. Put a cocktail in front of an alcoholic in distress and he'll probably drink it. Make it incredibly easy for someone to siphon your work for a few extra pageviews despite all conventional mores, and damn it, they'll be slapping Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V faster than you can get the words "fair use" out of your mouth.

     

A Peeps store at National Harbor sounded pretty absurd on its face. What does a Peeps store do once Easter is over and the Post's uploaded its last Peeps Show image?

Calling it "a planned new venture that went off track," Washington Post Publisher and CEO Katharine Weymouth apologized to readers today after it was revealed that the newspaper had been planning to trade access to journalists and government officials for cash in the form of "Post Salon" dinner events.

In case you haven't seen it yet, make sure to read Mike Allen's pretty amazing story over at Politico, which exposes a new business plan being put together by The Washington Post that would offer lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to high ranking government officials at "Post Salon" dinner events in exchange for huge cash payments, starting at $25,000 a pop. The really astonishing part of the story is already being walked back (sort of) by The Washington Post newsroom, however, as a flier obtained by Politico insinuated that access to the paper's own reporters and editors was also potentially for sale. Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli and spokesperson Kris Coratti told Politico that the newsroom would not participate in the first scheduled event, which will focus on health-care reform, because it would be inappropriate, but left room for the possibility that other Post Salons might feature editorial staffers. UPDATE 12:38 p.m.: Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth has just announced that she's canceling all the dinners. What a mess.

With his final column, Marc Fisher examines the highlight reel from his career total of 1,250 columns for the Washington Post and an additional 1,200 posts for Raw Fisher. Fisher pores over the perennial debates at the heart of his column -- failing schools, wishful transit schemes, cynical bureaucracy -- and finds that Washington hasn't changed much, even if the way we talk has. Underlining his discussion of the transition from newsprint to new media is a polite complaint about the direction of journalism. There's a wistfulness to his criticism that the proliferation of opinion journalism (I take it he means blogging) is "elbowing out the rigorous work of reporting." Fisher's no David Simon raging against the perceived collapse of beat reporting, but Fisher's new project bespeaks a dissatisfaction with the way things are. "Starting next month, I'll be putting together a group of writers whose job it will be to tell the truths of the Washington area in compelling and essential ways, combining traditional storytelling with new forms that involve and engage the people who live here." If anything, Fisher's "journalistic SWAT team" sounds like an alt-weekly within a newspaper. It also sounds like a potentially great outlet for Fisher's well-reasoned curmudgeonliness, his acute local radar, and his catalog of characters and contacts in the city -- all, I think, the distinctive takeaways from his column.

For the food nerd set, the James Beard Awards are akin to the Oscars. Sunday night, media awards were handed out, and The Washington Post was the winner of the best newspaper food section this year. Tonight, the winners of the restaurant industry portion will be announced. You can follow the announcements as they happen on The James Beard Foundation's Twitter feed starting at 6 p.m.

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson took home a Pulitzer Prize in Commentary today, "for his eloquent columns on the 2008 presidential campaign that focus on the election of the first African-American president, showcasing graceful writing and grasp of the larger historic picture." It's the only Pulitzer the newspaper got this year, marking a step back from last year, when the paper took home a record six awards. In 2007, the paper got none, in 2006, they got four, and in 2005, none again. So, next year, they'll get what, three?

On the surface: good idea! Certainly, no one could argue that the Council -- or the city at large, for that matter -- wouldn't benefit from an increase of the volume inside its collective crania.

The Washington Post has a story online about a deer that had to be put to sleep yesterday in Silver Spring. The deer, it seems, had been being chased by a dog, and in its efforts to flee, it first crashed through the front window of Greek Village Restaurant, and then later made its way peacefully inside a Giant Food grocery store, entering through the automatic door. The injured animal was eventually put to sleep once it was captured by animal control. The Post's headline? "Deer Rampage Ends in Silver Spring Supermarket." In the story itself, the frightened deer is alleged to have "ransacked" the greek restaurant, which would seem to mean that the Post believes this deer conducted a thorough inventory of the eatery and then robbed it. We're sure it was startling for patrons inside the restaurant, but "rampage" and "ransacked"? This is a deer we're talking about, right?

The Washington Post introduced a new format for the Outlook section yesterday, marking one more change in what has been a series of reforms and re-formats for the newspaper in a time of declining readership and revenue. Though the Outlook section looks and feels roughly the same, it dramatically did away with the unsigned editorials and signed op-eds (they've moved to the back pages of the A section, where they appear every other day of the week), pushed the last-page "Close to Home" local issue op-eds to the Metro section (across from the "Obituaries," no less) and awkwardly merged in shortened book reviews from the now defunct Book World section. The City Paper's Erik Wemple has an internal memo detailing the new Outlook format.

In another sign of how the Washington Post is moving to merge its print and online versions, washingtonpost.com changed its logo today to the same one that sits atop the regular newspaper. The old web site logo has been scuttled in favor of reinforcing the Post brand, a decision that strikes us as both wise and long overdue. Fishbowl DC has the internal memo:

This recognizes what we all have long known: washingtonpost.com is very much part of The Washington Post, complementary and in some ways distinct, but an absolutely central part of who we are. As we rethink how we present our journalism--whether it emanates from the paper or from the web--we wanted to signal that clearly to all our audiences.

So says The New York Times, though no official announcement yet from the Post.

According to reports from Book World employees, the last issue of Book World will appear in its tabloid print version on Feb. 15 but will continue to be published online as a distinct entity. In the printed newspaper, Sunday book content will be split between Outlook, the opinion and commentary section, and Style & Arts.

It really is a brave new world for daily newspapers. The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun announced today that they will share a certain amount of content, including both local Maryland news and national, international and feature stories. Post editor Marcus Brauchli and outgoing Sun editor Tim Franklin both put out glowing statements assessing the esteemed worth of the other paper and how this arrangement will be beneficial to their readers, but surely this is largely being done to save money. The announcement indicates that the two papers will not "usually" share exclusive stories, but it's not hard to imagine this agreement could eventually ruffle feathers across competing Metro sections. Then again, the Sun's ever-shrinking newsroom could probably use the help. Full press release is after the jump.

We understood why people were clamoring to buy last Wednesday's Washington Post, the one that declared that President-Elect Obama had made history. And sure, it made a certain amount of sense that D.C. residents started lining up at CVS that evening to snag a copy of the special $1.50 commemorative edition that came out later in the day, after the regular paper completely sold out. This was a huge moment in the history of this country, and even if the Washington Post ended up going with a pretty boring design for its cover, this is still the major paper of Washington, D.C., the center of American politics.

It's been virtually impossible to pick up a paper copy of the Washington Post today (or any other major paper, for that matter), but Editor & Publisher reports that a special edition should hit the stands around 3 p.m. The special election edition, of which there will be at least 150,000 copies, will cost $1.50, $1 more than the regular newsstand price. Lots of other papers around the country are printing extra copies, too. If only Obama could win the presidency every day, every newspaper publisher must be thinking right now.

Everyone knows the perils and regrets of drunk dialing. There's that awful feeling of waking up the next morning remembering the nastygram you left on someone's answering machine. Washington Post critic Tom Sietsema must be feeling that way today after the paper retracted his review of Commissary, citing that he and one of the owners has a previous "personal relationship" and should have recused himself. This morning the owners of Commissary also sent out an email to their listserv blasting Sietsema over his review.

The second installment of a two-part post previewing D.C.'s race for the newly reconfigured Board of Education. Read the first part here.

We might not have Joe the Plumber or $150,000 in stylish threads, but the final days before a number of local races are decided have gotten plenty exciting. There's internal fighting, a second-time-around endorsement and a drunk-driving charge.

DCist has been requiring comment registration as a spam-prevention measure for quite some time now, so hopefully our readers won't be too surprised to learn that washingtonpost.com will begin requiring it on every one of their blogs sometime next week. Steven Goff first mentioned it on his Soccer Insider blog today, and Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive spokesperson Molly Gannon tells us that while registration has already been required in order to comment on news stories on the WaPo web site, they are only now implementing that same requirement on the Post's blog properties. Seems like a lot of changes are afoot at washingtonpost.com this week; the Going Out Gurus got a redesign today as well.

Where: Komi

Via Notions Capital, a weeks-old Politico story we missed contains a tidbit about a funny exchange said to have taken place between perennial fringe presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader and the Washington Post editorial board.

Nader recounted a recent meeting with editors at The Washington Post, who he said told him the paper wasn’t covering his campaign because he had no chance of winning. According to Nader, he replied: “Then why are you covering the Nationals?” a reference to Washington’s long-suffering baseball team.