One Mission, Two Newsrooms

A long, in-depth look at the challenges the Washington Post is having with its online operation (and vice versa). As a former washingtonpost.com employee, I have to say that the physical separation (The Post is in DC, post.com is across the Potomac in VA) is a huge factor. Supposed colleagues rarely meet each other face to face, which breeds big distrust. When I was there working in the Sports section as an online producer, there were a few editors on the print side who were “good guys,” but everyone else largely ignored and/or antagonized us. Another big factor then (2002-04) was that a lot of the print guys were not technologically savvy and didn’t understand — or want to understand — that the Web was important. It seems that that realization has to be clear now.