Digital Transformation at The Washington Post: Innovating for the Next Generation

The Washington Post (The Post) is one of the world’s most respected news-media organizations. After joining The Post as CEO and publisher in 2014, Fred Ryan worked with owner Jeff Bezos and The Post's executive team to bring about an extraordinary digital transformation at the global news organization. Despite all its success, The Post faced several significant business challenges in 2021, including new competitors, a growing number of channels through which readers consumed news, and rapidly changing consumer behavior. In response, The Post developed a digital-product mindset, rebuilt its newsroom, redesigned core business processes, built a software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology platform that functioned as a very profitable "business within a business," and announced the creation of Next Generation—a new initiative to accelerate the acquisition of younger and more diverse audiences through new products, practices, and partnerships.