Washington Post Publisher Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., who joined the Washington Post six months ago, sent an update to the staff on what has happened since he came to the organization. His update stated, in part:
“We have taken on an ambitious goal of vastly expanding our readership to a broader national and global audience. The results are impressive with our total digital audience expanding to over 48 million unique visitors last month, a record that marks 63% growth over last year. Our mobile audience grew to an all-time high exceeding 31 million unique visitors—an 80% increase over last year. This exceptional growth exceeds that of any of our key competitors.
“User engagement is high with our total page views nearing 500 million for the first time, which is 109% growth year over year. We are attracting one of the largest and fastest growing millennial audiences among major media outlets, an impressive sign that Washington Post journalism is becoming essential to a new generation of readers.
“These past few months, we have added to the strong Washington Post team with some incredibly talented new members. Steve Gibson, a highly respected media executive, has joined us as Chief Financial Officer and Jed Hartman, one of the most innovative and admired people in advertising today has signed on as Chief Revenue Officer. Recognizing internal excellence, Tracy Grant has been promoted to Deputy Managing Editor, Beth Diaz to Vice President of Audience Development & Analytics and Kris Coratti to Vice President of Communications – all terrific additions to the leadership team. Leili Boroumand joined us earlier this month as Director of Business Development and she has hit the ground running.
“To lead an expanded offering to the “leadership audience” of decision makers and influentials, the Newsroom has added to its ranks with well-regarded journalist Rachel Van Dongen. As leader of the business side of this important initiative, we are today announcing the hiring of Alex Treadway for the newly created position of Vice President of Leadership Market Sales.
“We are laser-focused on operating as a nimble, forward-looking company with a culture of innovation and swift implementation.
As part of this transformation, we have undertaken a thoughtful analysis of our staff structure in non-Newsroom positions, to be certain that we are deploying our resources in ways consistent with today’s rapidly changing media model and our bold vision for the future. As a result, we have decided to internally transfer or eliminate certain non-Newsroom positions, where appropriate. That process has been concluded and most of those directly affected by these structural changes have already been notified. Decisions that eliminate or restructure positions are difficult to make and even harder to receive. We came to these decisions after much careful deliberation and with great appreciation for the colleagues who feel the impact of this realignment.
“The media world is changing at an even faster pace than ever before. To continue on our trajectory of growth and expansion, we must be in a constant state of transformation with the nimbleness and speed of execution to lead and innovate in this rapidly evolving space.
“As we pursue our ambitious expansion strategy, we will continue our investment in the Newsroom. Seventeen journalists have been hired in the first three months of the year and more to come.”
(Photo courtesy of The Washington Post)
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