'Washington Post' Unveils Video Push

The Washington Post is bolstering its video offerings with the launch of a new content hub, “Washington Post Video,” the newspaper announced this week.

Led by Micah Gelman, who joined the newspaper ad director of video in April, the video hub is a revamped and expanded version of PostTV, which will deliver fresh content daily including original video, franchise video segments and video news aggregated from other sources across the Web.

The franchise segments will draw on WaPo editorial features like The Fix, Wonkblog, On Parenting, On Leadership and Capital Weather Gang, among others.

Washington Post Video formats will be tailored for specific platforms.

For example, the unit created a vertical video player for upcoming 2016 election coverage, allowing reporters to shoot and post video to apps like Snapchat. The unit is also testing video production using virtual reality and 360-degree immersive video technology.

A number of big newspaper publishers are focusing on digital video as a means to engage audiences and raise ad revenues. Back in July, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet urged the newsroom to “become even more ambitious and undertake a broad rethinking of our video operation, including what we produce and how we distribute it.”

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The Wall Street Journal has built a dedicated video production staff of dozens. In June, it rebranded its video efforts from “WSJ Live” to “WSJ Video,” reflecting a greater emphasis on on-demand video after the newspaper canceled its live programs. The new effort includes WorldStream, which allows reporters to create and upload short videos from the field.

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