Can Vijay Ravindran and his team of technologists figure out a way to make journalism pay for itself in the Internet age?
Don Graham hopes so. His company’s flagship newspaper and its Web site have been losing money and dragging down the Washington Post Company’s profits and stock price. Free news on the Internet has undercut journalism’s business model.
“There’s no silver bullet,” Ravindran says. He’s the Post’s first “chief digital officer.” We’re in a small meeting room in the company’s executive suite four floors above the newsroom. “We have the willingness to experiment with a new mix. How do we deliver the best experience across all the cultural norms that people now expect?”
Ravindran has been on the job four months, so it’s too soon for a plan to save newspapering. But his installation in the Post Company’s upper echelon is a sign of CEO Don Graham’s willingness to experiment—and his desperation.
Graham had the vision to create Washingtonpost.com in 1996, but he failed to see that the online publishing unit would develop a separate culture. This summer, the Post is consumed by trying to merge the disparate new operations, reduce staff, and reorganize at all levels.
Ravindran, 35, is a sweet, mild-mannered geek. He grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, where his father taught industrial engineering. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1996 and went into software development for American Management Systems.
“I cut my teeth as a programmer,” he says.
Ravindran sharpened them developing software for Amazon.com. He had seven jobs in as many years, eventually “running teams working on the guts of the Amazon platform.” He developed ways to make it easier for customers to buy more things more easily. When his wife landed a teaching job at the University of Maryland, Ravindran came east and asked: “What next?”
Democratic strategist and entrepreneur Harold Ickes helped answer the question by enlisting Ravindran to build Catalist, a national voter database for Democratic candidates and liberal organizations. From the fall of 2005 through the election of Barack Obama, Ravindran built systems for Catalist. After the election, Amazon board member—and Smithsonian board chair—Patricia Stonesifer introduced him to Graham.
“We hit it off really well,” says Ravindran. “He knew there was a strong need to innovate in the digital space and the Post had to make an investment to grow internally.”
Ravindran started February 13 and now says, “There are a lot of new faces.” He’s building a team, lunching in Graham’s dining room with staffers, meeting with publisher Katharine Weymouth and editor Marcus Brauchli. His main contacts are Geoff Reiss at Newsweek.com; Goli Sheikholeslami and Roger Andelin at Washingtonpost.com; and Raju Narisetti, Washington Post managing editor.
Good news: Ravindran delivered his first “product,” a streaming conversation for the Post Company’s online magazine, Slate, across Twitter and Facebook. The first installment was a five-part series about the use of animals in medical research. He hopes it will be one of the “kernels” to build Post revenues.
Bad news: Ravindran understands there are not enough revenues in publishing online—yet.
Don Graham hopes Ravindran can turn “yet” into tomorrow.
This article first appeared in the July 2009 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here.
Can This Geek Save the Post?
Can Vijay Ravindran and his team of technologists figure out a way to make journalism pay for itself in the Internet age?
Don Graham hopes so. His company’s flagship newspaper and its Web site have been losing money and dragging down the Washington Post Company’s profits and stock price. Free news on the Internet has undercut journalism’s business model.
“There’s no silver bullet,” Ravindran says. He’s the Post’s first “chief digital officer.” We’re in a small meeting room in the company’s executive suite four floors above the newsroom. “We have the willingness to experiment with a new mix. How do we deliver the best experience across all the cultural norms that people now expect?”
Ravindran has been on the job four months, so it’s too soon for a plan to save newspapering. But his installation in the Post Company’s upper echelon is a sign of CEO Don Graham’s willingness to experiment—and his desperation.
Graham had the vision to create Washingtonpost.com in 1996, but he failed to see that the online publishing unit would develop a separate culture. This summer, the Post is consumed by trying to merge the disparate new operations, reduce staff, and reorganize at all levels.
Ravindran, 35, is a sweet, mild-mannered geek. He grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, where his father taught industrial engineering. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1996 and went into software development for American Management Systems.
“I cut my teeth as a programmer,” he says.
Ravindran sharpened them developing software for Amazon.com. He had seven jobs in as many years, eventually “running teams working on the guts of the Amazon platform.” He developed ways to make it easier for customers to buy more things more easily. When his wife landed a teaching job at the University of Maryland, Ravindran came east and asked: “What next?”
Democratic strategist and entrepreneur Harold Ickes helped answer the question by enlisting Ravindran to build Catalist, a national voter database for Democratic candidates and liberal organizations. From the fall of 2005 through the election of Barack Obama, Ravindran built systems for Catalist. After the election, Amazon board member—and Smithsonian board chair—Patricia Stonesifer introduced him to Graham.
“We hit it off really well,” says Ravindran. “He knew there was a strong need to innovate in the digital space and the Post had to make an investment to grow internally.”
Ravindran started February 13 and now says, “There are a lot of new faces.” He’s building a team, lunching in Graham’s dining room with staffers, meeting with publisher Katharine Weymouth and editor Marcus Brauchli. His main contacts are Geoff Reiss at Newsweek.com; Goli Sheikholeslami and Roger Andelin at Washingtonpost.com; and Raju Narisetti, Washington Post managing editor.
Good news: Ravindran delivered his first “product,” a streaming conversation for the Post Company’s online magazine, Slate, across Twitter and Facebook. The first installment was a five-part series about the use of animals in medical research. He hopes it will be one of the “kernels” to build Post revenues.
Bad news: Ravindran understands there are not enough revenues in publishing online—yet.
Don Graham hopes Ravindran can turn “yet” into tomorrow.
This article first appeared in the July 2009 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here.
More>> Capital Comment Blog | News & Politics | Society Photos
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