• by Sara Guaglione , November 20, 2019

The Washington Post is teaming up with AT&T to bring 5G technology to its newsroom. It will also open an “innovation lab” at The Post's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Spearheaded by Chief Revenue Officer Joy Robins, the deal will have the newspaper work with AT&T to “explore how The Post can use 5G in their coverage of the 2020 presidential election and other top news events across the country,” according to the publisher.

Scot Gillespie, Chief Technology Officer at The Post, stated the alliance means “we will not only be able to deliver news more quickly, but we will also be able to deliver it in completely new and compelling ways enabled by leveraging the capabilities of 5G,” stated

The Post will use AT&T's video services to cover live events throughout the 2020 campaign. The partnership launches today, with live video broadcasts from the Democratic presidential debate, which The Post is co-hosting with MSNBC in Atlanta.

WP BrandStudio and AT&T will produce a behind-the-scenes series on the intersection of news, video programming and tech. The campaign kicks off with a look at how The Post transmits live video from the debate this evening.

Reporters will also experiment with using millimeter wave 5G+ technology to transmit their stories, photos and videos “faster and more reliably” across the country.

The5G lab “will test new formats, exploring what the future of digital storytelling could look like from making visuals 4D or creating more immersive news experiences," according to the publisher.

Verizon Media opened its own 5G production studio in Los Angeles earlier this year.

The company has teamed up with a number of publishers, including USA Today, Reuters and The Associated Press, to offer its resources to produce content in new, “extended reality,” or XR, formats, which can include augmented reality, augmented virtuality and virtual reality .