The document summarizes the digital transformation at The Washington Post. It describes how The Post has grown to over 1,000 newsroom employees and 3 million digital subscriptions under owner Jeff Bezos. It also discusses how The Post developed its own software products like Arc XP to help other publishers digitally transform. The Post uses product management practices like quarterly OKR reviews to focus on continuously improving the user experience and subscription funnel.

1. Digital Transformation @ The
Washington Post

2. • The Washington Post (The Post) began operations on December 6, 1877
• In February 2021, The Post reported 82 million unique visitors and an
additional 40 million internationally2
• Also in 2021, there were more than 1,000 newsroom employees (the
largest in the history of The Post)
• In December 2020, The Post had more than three million digital
subscriptions and achieved its fifth year of consecutive profitability2
• Publishing competitors include the New York Times, the Wall Street
Journal, and the Financial Times
Summary of The Post

3. • The Post had been owned and managed by the Meyer-Graham family
for four generations
• Jeff Bezos bought The Post from Donald Graham in 2013 for $250
million after six consecutive years of declining revenues
• Bezos later brought in industry veteran Fred Ryan to serve as CEO
and publisher of The Post
Summary of The Post (continued)

4. “In the very first meeting we had when we were talking about this
job, I asked him, ‘Jeff, why did you buy The Washington Post?’ He
said, ‘I bought The Washington Post because I believe that a free,
independent, and strong press is essential for the health of our
democracy.’ And I thought, that’s the right answer...the answer I
was hoping for.”1
Fred Ryan on Why Bezos Bought The Post

5. Leadership Team

6. Top Global News Media Competitors
Rank Publication Paid Subscriptions
1 New York Times 6,100,000
2 The Washington Post 3,000,000
3 Wall Street Journal 2,400,000
4 Game Informer 2,100,000
5 Financial Times 1,100,000
6 Athletic 1,000,000
7 Guardian 790,000
8 Nikkei 769,000
9 Economist 516,000
10 Caixin 510,000

7. Gen Z and News Consumption
Which of these was the MAIN way in which you came across news in
the last week? Base: All/18-to-24-year-olds who came across online
news in the last week: Global sample = 74,181/9,083

8. Industry Disruption

9. Daily Newspapers and
Circulation per Capita in the
United States, 1790–2020

10. Changing Customer Behavior

11. Business Model

12. • Two principal ways to monetize news creation: subscriptions and
advertising
• For much of the industry’s history, advertising had played the leading
role
• More recently, the internet put pressure on advertising revenues as
digital ad space became increasingly pervasive
• The extreme decline in print advertising happened without an equally
offsetting rise in digital advertising for many companies
The Su bscription Advertising Model

13. Advertising and Circulation Revenue of
Public US Newspapers (Combined), 1956–2019

14. Digital Products Deployed at The
Post to Aid Subscription and
Advertising Revenues
• Carta (2016): Newsletter delivery platform
• Heliograph (2016): AI system enabling nationwide election coverage (used in
2016, 2018, and 2020 elections)
• SwitchPlay (2018): User-friendly video experience that seamlessly combines pre-
roll and in-article video
• Feedbuilder (2019): Tool that automatically builds multiple creative assets, scans
all available content, and then utilizes proprietary personalization technology to
align ad units with what users are reading at the time or read in their current visit

15. The Post’s Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) Products
• Arc XP (Arc Publishing) (2016): Modern digital experience platform (DXP) that provides an end-to-end
solution for media and entertainment organizations and enterprise businesses across industries
• Arc Commerce (2021): Equips brand marketers with the tools and capabilities to grow ecommerce
• Zeus Technology (2016): Media monetization platform
• Zeus Performance (2019): Industry-leading advertising framework and revenue technology stack
• Zeus Insights (2019): Context targeting with first-party data
• Zeus Prime (2019): Premium ad network
• Zeus Video (2021): Improves the efficiency of advertising by reducing latency and driving
viewability

16. Arc XP Service Map

17. Business Model Canvas, Publishing
Key Partners
Distribution Partners
 Search engines
 Mobile app stores
 Social media
platforms
(Facebook,
Snapchat)
 Apple News
 Voice assistants
(Amazon Alexa,
Google Assistant)
Content Partners
 Freelance journalists
Suppliers
 Paper printing
 Paper delivery
 Technology
Key Activities
 Content creation
 Publishing
 Marketing
 Advertiser rel.
mgmt
 IT/product mgmt
 Data management
Value Proposition
Jobs to be done:
Subscribers
 Global news content
 Quality: fact-based
objective reporting
 Trustworthy
 Accessibility: Timely
omnichannel delivery
Advertisers
 End-to-end
partnership
 Premium ad platform
 Data
Arc XP Customers
 SaaS
Customer Relationships
 Automated services
 Communities
 Data-driven
communication
(surveys, comment
analysis, price
promotions, activity
monitoring)
Customer Segments
Multisided and
diversified
Subscribers
 Global audience
(digital)
 DC metro area (print)
 Older
 College educated
 Higher income
 Gen Z (target)
Advertisers
Arc XP Customers
 Publishers
 Broadcasting
 E-commerce
Key Resources
 Journalists
 Leadership
 Data
 Brand (quality and
truth)
 Product mindset
 IT/engineering
talent
 Arc XP
Channels
Omnichannel
 Website
 Mobile app
 Print
 Advertising/promotions
 Podcasts
 Social media
 Live broadcasting
Cost Structure
 Content collection and creation (travel, legal challenges,
wages); high relative to other publishers due to quality
investigative journalism
 Content distribution (digital platforms/print—printing and
delivery)
 IT (Arc XP and Amazon Web Services [AWS])
 Marketing and advertising
 Rent and supplies
 Human resources (high salaries for engineers, data scientists,
etc.)
Revenue Streams
 Subscriptions (digital: all-access, premium, academic/print)
 Advertising (digital and print)
 Arc XP
 E-commerce store (books, clothing, etc.)

18. Business Model Canvas, Arc XP SaaS
Key Partners
 University papers
 Client publishers and
organizations
 The Post newsroom
 AWS
 The Post subscribers
 The Post advertisers
Key Activities
 Constant software
updates
 Data sharing
 CRM
 Product development
 Product testing
 Marketing
Value Proposition
 Jobs to be done:
o Efficiently create a
unique digital
experience
o Replicate
successful methods
of major digital
players
 Unified processes:
Reduces number of
systems to navigate
 Customization:
permits client
“tinkering”
 Market insights: Learn
from The Post's
testing and
strategizing
 Modern tech:
Constant updates to
keep ahead of trends
Customer Relationships
 Data-driven
communication
(constant software
updates, data sharing,
activity monitoring)
 Top leadership
discussions
Customer Segments
University Publishers
 Open to data sharing
Commercial Publishers
 Lack in-house
capability
Non-Publishers
 Heavy use of
publisher-like tools
(blogs, video, article
sharing)
 E-commerce interests
 Lack in-house
capability
Key Resources
 Leadership
 Data (The Post and
Arc XP client
subscriber/advertiser
data)
 Post brand (quality
and trust)
 Product mindset
 250+ engineers
 RED Team
Channels
 C-suite word-of-
mouth
 The Post PR memos
 Business articles
 Consultants
Cost Structure
 Product testing and developing
 Data storage
 IT; high salaries for engineers, data scientists, etc.
 Rent
 Human resources
Revenue Streams
 Revenue synergies for The Post subscriptions and advertising
(digital and print)
 Arc XP licensing

19. SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 Management team
 Dedicated, educated, and passionate employees
 High brand recognition and quality perception
 Industry-leading software (Arc XP, Zeus)
 Three million digital and 300,000 print subscribers
 Data collection (subscriber, advertisers, and Arc XP data)
 Financial resources (backing of Jeff Bezos)
 Advertising partnerships
 Strong relationships with social media, broadcasting, and technology leaders
 Content-dissemination omnichannel
 Content creation (political, investigative, etc.)
Weaknesses
 Low Gen Z and younger millennial engagement
 High salaries
 Consistent decline in print subscriptions
 Low digital ad prices
Opportunities
 New customers (younger generation is still largely untapped, global markets)
 New products (increased social media presence, ad technology improvements,
additional language features)
 New relationships (create stronger “social-media-to-The-Post-subscriber” funnel
from partnerships, fair aggregator relationships between news suppliers and
platforms)
Threats
 The rise of Gen Z
 Social media
 News aggregators
 Fake news and industry decline in trust
 Broadcast streaming (CNN+)
 SaaS competition from large technology companies
 Data/strategy sharing with Arc clients
 Political attacks
 Subscription fatigue
 Subscriber price competition

20. Product Management

21. Shailesh Prakash, CIO, on Jeff Bezos
• “Here’s a man who understands and believes in product development.
He’s always encouraged us to innovate and invent and not worry too
much about having the full business plan figured out before we start
building. He wants to see us constantly make our site faster, lower the
cognitive dissonance of the news reading experience ... you name it,
and Jeff pushes on it, and he’s excited about it. My developers talk to
him, my product managers talk to him, and my designers talk to him.
We love the fact that he is a product guy.”

22. Product Management at The Post
• Two main components to the product group: reader revenue and core user experience
• Agile and scrum practices
• 12+ product teams, each with 5 to 10 members (roles include lead product manager, user experience [UX]
designer, visual designer, design technologist, front-end engineer, back-end engineer, scrum master, subject
matter expert)
• Quarterly alignment exercises used to review product organization’s objectives and key results (OKRs)
• Product vision communicated from top using vision statement with high-level OKRs

23. The Post’s Subscription Funnel
• Off-platform interactions (social
media views, comments, and so on)
• Total unique visitors to owned and
operated platforms
• Average number of page views
• Newsletter sign-ups
• App downloads
• Subscriptions starts
• Daily active users
• Terminations
• Churn rate
Attract
Activate
Convert
Retain
Key Performance Indicators

24. • New leadership: CIO (2011), owner (2013), CEO (2014)
• New organizational architecture: “Ensure that speed of execution becomes an asset”
• Three catalysts: Shaping ideas, taking ownership, and speed of execution
• Move from “an IT mindset of babysitting systems into a product development
mindset”
• “Metabolism shift”: Co-located product teams empowered to experiment
• Adopted agile methodologies and scrum practices, DevOps
• Build (vs. buy), cloud first + mobile first + DevOps, omnichannel, first mover
• Vision statement  product team OKRs (reviewed every two weeks for alignment)
• Rebuilt the newsroom and redesigned core business processes
• A technology company disguised as a newspaper!
The Post’s Digital Transformation

25. Competitive Advantage

26. Economic Impacts
• IT changes relative costs of capital and the costs of
information
• Information systems technology is a factor of production, like
capital and labor
• IT affects the cost and quality of information and changes
economics of information
– Information technology helps firms contract in size because it can reduce
transaction costs (the cost of participating in markets)
• Outsourcing

28. Transaction Cost Theory
• Firms seek to economize on transaction costs
(the costs of participating in markets)
– Vertical integration, hiring more employees, buying
suppliers and distributors
• IT lowers market transaction costs, making it
worthwhile for firms to transact with other
firms rather than grow the number of
employees

29. Agency Theory
• Firm is nexus of contracts among self-
interested parties requiring supervision
• Firms experience agency costs (the cost of
managing and supervising) which rise as firm
grows
• IT can reduce agency costs, making it possible
for firms to grow without adding to the costs
of supervising, and without adding employees

30. • Traditional competitors
• New market entrants
• Substitute products and services
• Customers
• Suppliers
Porter’s Competitive Forces Model
Using Information Systems to Achieve
Competitive Advantage

31. Porter’s Competitive Forces Model
In Porter’s competitive forces model, the strategic position of the firm and its
strategies are determined not only by competition with its traditional direct
competitors but also by four forces in the industry’s environment: new market
entrants, substitute products, customers, and suppliers.
Using Information Systems to Achieve Competitive Advantage

32. • Low-cost leadership: Use information systems to achieve the lowest operational costs and the
lowest prices. For example, a supply chain management system can incorporate an efficient
customer response system to directly link consumer behavior to distribution and production and
supply chains, helping lower inventory and distribution costs.
http://rollcall.tv/rollcall_video_view.php?vId=13535053555351535353515349
• Product differentiation: Use information systems to enable new products and services, or greatly
change the customer convenience in using your existing products and services. For instance,
Land's End uses mass customization, offering individually tailored products or services using the
same production resources as mass production, to custom-tailor clothing to individual customer
specifications.

33. • Focus on market niche: Use information systems to enable a specific market focus and serve this narrow
target market better than competitors. Information systems support this strategy by producing and analyzing
data for finely tuned sales and marketing techniques. Hilton Hotels uses a customer information system with
detailed data about active guests to provide tailored services and reward profitable customers with extra
privileges and attention.
• Strengthen customer and supplier intimacy: Use information systems to tighten linkages with suppliers and
develop intimacy with customers. Chrysler Corporation uses information systems to facilitate direct access
from suppliers to production schedules, and even permits suppliers to decide how and when to ship
suppliers to Chrysler factories. This allows suppliers more lead time in producing goods. Strong linkages to
customers and suppliers increase switching costs (the cost of switching from one product to a competing
product) and loyalty to your firm.