It’s official: Don Graham “gets it,” perhaps more than any other big newspaper publisher.
As in “gets the Internet.”
Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Company and the real boss of the daily paper, was the first to throw millions at washingtonpost.com, more than a decade ago, when most publishers thought a web site was where spiders hung out.
This week Graham alerted Posties that their work is now part of Facebook, the social networking site that is drawing eyeballs across the globe. His e-mail introduced the new “widget” to Post employees on Halloween night.
“It’s called newsTracker,” Graham wrote, “and it lets you look at news about the people and events that matter most to you (with news from the Post playing the lead role).”
With one stoke, Graham and his Internet team have made Post content available on a hot site that competes with Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace.
Here’s a short course on the “newstracker” widget:
Facebook is where people meet to share news as prosaic as what they ate for lunch and what they are listening to at the moment to more lofty information like what news of the day they are reading and sharing.
Anyone can join Facebook, and anyone can create a “widget,” which is essentially a gadget or “tool” on the Facebook page which will give you information and link you to other sites. It can be a photo display, like My Flickr, or it can be a listing of favorite music.
The Post’s “newsTracker” widget allows Facebook members to list news topics that interest them, it sends them story headlines, which link to washingtonpost.com and oher news publications.
If newsTracker is a success, it will drive traffic to washingtonpost.com.
“If” is the big question. Facebook is the ultimate news democracy. Members can choose to put “newsTracker” on their Facebook page, which will be a coup for Graham, or people will ignore it, in which case it will be just another blip in the dustbin of Internet ideas.
"The race to colonize Facebook is underway," says Washington Post.com editor Jim Brady. "Everybody is trying to put up an application and claim a peice of the site."
Either way, Don Graham has shown again why he and the Post just might stay alive and prosper in the ever-changing world of publishing in the Internet age. Graham credits “Rob Curley and his team (with Deryck Hodge and Jesse Foltz starring, among others)” for creating “newsTracker.”
But Rob Curley says the idea came from Don Graham.
Don Graham Gets the Internet and Facebook
It’s official: Don Graham “gets it,” perhaps more than any other big newspaper publisher.
As in “gets the Internet.”
Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Company and the real boss of the daily paper, was the first to throw millions at washingtonpost.com, more than a decade ago, when most publishers thought a web site was where spiders hung out.
This week Graham alerted Posties that their work is now part of Facebook, the social networking site that is drawing eyeballs across the globe. His e-mail introduced the new “widget” to Post employees on Halloween night.
“It’s called newsTracker,” Graham wrote, “and it lets you look at news about the people and events that matter most to you (with news from the Post playing the lead role).”
With one stoke, Graham and his Internet team have made Post content available on a hot site that competes with Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace.
Here’s a short course on the “newstracker” widget:
Facebook is where people meet to share news as prosaic as what they ate for lunch and what they are listening to at the moment to more lofty information like what news of the day they are reading and sharing.
Anyone can join Facebook, and anyone can create a “widget,” which is essentially a gadget or “tool” on the Facebook page which will give you information and link you to other sites. It can be a photo display, like My Flickr, or it can be a listing of favorite music.
The Post’s “newsTracker” widget allows Facebook members to list news topics that interest them, it sends them story headlines, which link to washingtonpost.com and oher news publications.
If newsTracker is a success, it will drive traffic to washingtonpost.com.
“If” is the big question. Facebook is the ultimate news democracy. Members can choose to put “newsTracker” on their Facebook page, which will be a coup for Graham, or people will ignore it, in which case it will be just another blip in the dustbin of Internet ideas.
"The race to colonize Facebook is underway," says Washington Post.com editor Jim Brady. "Everybody is trying to put up an application and claim a peice of the site."
Either way, Don Graham has shown again why he and the Post just might stay alive and prosper in the ever-changing world of publishing in the Internet age. Graham credits “Rob Curley and his team (with Deryck Hodge and Jesse Foltz starring, among others)” for creating “newsTracker.”
But Rob Curley says the idea came from Don Graham.
Most Popular in News & Politics
Meet DC’s 2025 Tech Titans
The “MAGA Former Dancer” Named to a Top Job at the Kennedy Center Inherits a Troubled Program
White House Seriously Asks People to Believe Trump’s Letter to Epstein Is Fake, Oliver North and Fawn Hall Got Married, and It’s Time to Plan Your Apple-Picking Excursion
Scott Bessent Got in Another Argument With a Coworker; Trump Threatens Chicago, Gets Booed in New York; and Our Critic Has an Early Report From Kayu
Trump Travels One Block From White House, Declares DC Crime-Free; Barron Trump Moves to Town; and GOP Begins Siege of Home Rule
Washingtonian Magazine
September Issue: Style Setters
View IssueSubscribe
Follow Us on Social
Follow Us on Social
Related
These Confusing Bands Aren’t Actually From DC
Fiona Apple Wrote a Song About This Maryland Court-Watching Effort
The Confusing Dispute Over the Future of the Anacostia Playhouse
Protecting Our Drinking Water Keeps Him Up at Night
More from News & Politics
How a DC Area Wetlands Restoration Project Could Help Clean Up the Anacostia River
Pressure Grows on FBI Leadership as Search for Kirk’s Killer Continues, Kennedy Center Fires More Staffers, and Spotted Lanternflies Are Everywhere
What Is Free DC?
Manhunt for Charlie Kirk Shooter Continues, Britain Fires US Ambassador Over Epstein Connections, and Sandwich Guy Will Get a Jury Trial
Can Two Guys Ride a Rickshaw over the Himalayas? It Turns Out They Can.
Trump Travels One Block From White House, Declares DC Crime-Free; Barron Trump Moves to Town; and GOP Begins Siege of Home Rule
Donald Trump Dines at Joe’s Seafood Next to the White House
White House Seriously Asks People to Believe Trump’s Letter to Epstein Is Fake, Oliver North and Fawn Hall Got Married, and It’s Time to Plan Your Apple-Picking Excursion