The Washington Post has historically had strong investigative journalism and maintained a proactive tradition of covering a variety of topics. However, competitors now match or exceed the Post in some areas. The Post's strengths include its focus on and comprehensive coverage of Washington D.C. politics through editorials and accountability reporting. It also effectively covers national and international news online with interactive materials. However, its focus on D.C. politics and some subjective "news" pieces are also weaknesses. To maintain its legacy, the Post must continue adapting, especially with its political coverage online, while strengthening its unique national policy reporting.

1. Can the Post maintain its legacy?

2. “The Post on its worse days is better than most
newspapers on their best days”
Robert G Kaiser
“We had the best weather, the best comics, the
best news report, the fullest news report.
Today, there's a competitor who does every
element of what we do, and many of them do
it better. We've lost our edge in some very
profound and fundamental ways.”

3. Investigative Journalism
Maintains proactive tradition
Variety of topics

4. Post’s Coverage of Crises
Strengths
• Focus on Washington DC bubble
• Comprehensive policy coverage
• Editorials provide factual
understanding of events
• Holding officials accountable
• Well organized website
• Supplemental & interactive
materials online
• Effective in national and
international news
• Learning lessons from past
crises
• Innovative sources
Weaknesses
• Focus on Washington DC bubble
• Subjective opinions in “news”
pieces
• Dramatization
• Lack of unique information from
the ground

28. Conclusions
• Learning and adapting from
their mistakes
• Continuing to walk the line
within the DC bubble
• Maintaining a proactive stance,
emphasized online, especially
with political coverage
• The international coverage is
adapting and improving upon
mistakes, but the national
policy coverage is the true
unique trait of the Post and
how the Post in-part lives up to
the Watergate legacy