Washington Post Launches New Blog, Misses the Point

The Washington Post Company (WPO) launched its newest online venture, WhoRunsGov.com, yesterday. From their "About" page:

Who Runs Gov offers a unique look at the world of Washington through its key players and personalities. Our site will feature profiles of a select group of government officials, including members of the new presidential administration, legislators, senior Congressional aides and committee staff, and experts at think tanks and interest groups who influence how policy is made.

For our initial site launch, creating and editing profiles will be limited to our editorial staff; in its second phase, our site will evolve into a moderated wiki.

I don’t see how this site can succeed in the face of competition from local competitors like Politico, national competitors like TalkingPointsMemo and international competitors like Wikipedia.org. These three (and many more) are established and have great communities surrounding them. Additionally, the mere presence of WhoRunsGov.com dilutes the already smallish pool of advertisers looking to get on politics sites.

I would have liked to see The Washington Post do something a little more daring and valuable by creating a Washington DC Wiki type site. When I worked down there last summer, I used Google (GOOG) Maps, Yahoo (YHOO) Local, and random blogs to find eateries and entertainment. I should have been using a local newspaper’s wiki to do this.

Why would it work?

1. Everyone in your local geographic community is an expert… that local pizza shop? Yeah, I’ve eaten there and here are some supporting links.
2. This is a no brainer that can easily be monetized by lots and lots of small local businesses advertising on the site. Think small text ads appearing alongside all pages and competitor’s pages.
3. This site can be launched and maintained by two people, maybe one. Wikimedia is run by 23 people!
4. Community, Community, Community (Metafilter and Wikipedia practically police themselves)
5. Micropayments, Micropayments, Micropayments (Google AdSense makes $billions on $50 transactions). Make advertising placement easy and cheap.

How is WashPo helping their local community by launching a political blog? How are they helping their existing readers and advertisers with the launch of this website? What is the income potential for their shareholders? The Washington Post really needs to figure out what community they want to serve: locals or national politics. If the answer is BOTH, then a fundamental change needs to occur in the way they are attempting to reach their audiences.

I do not see this site filling a need for readers or advertisers.

Disclosure: no positions

Comments

[Sarah Carr:]

Thanks for the mention!! More information about WhoRunsGov , specifically platform and technology, can be found here: cli.gs/Gov

Jan 23 02:05 PM

[Joe Murphy:]

Some thoughts here:
- WaPo's pitching for a national audience here. Larger potential audience == larger potential ad dollars.
- A wiki is not the same as a blog, and picking a niche to compete against Wikipedia on is not the same as taking on the entireity of Wikipedia.
- If it's actually useful (or if it's SEO does it well) it could work.
- The Washington Post is in a weird position as a newspaper -- it's not entirely local, it does publish original nation and world-level journalism. Also, no matter how much it wants to be, it's not the New York Times. That said, I agree with you: capitalizing on place-based publishing is in their interest. Have you seen their City Guide, or their Local Explorer sites? ( www.washingtonpost.com.../ ) I get the feeling you haven't.

-Joe

Jan 23 10:07 PM

[chistletoe:]

Many investors are desperately searching for "safety" these days.
I can't think of a safer investment
than shorting The Washington Post ...

Jan 23 06:55 AM