Washington Post Transformed Into the Country’s Fastest Growing Digital News Site

Washington Post leapt into the digital media age with strong news apps and a content management system that became a source of revenue by itself.
01.20.22

The Challenge

Washington Post, the country’s leading national newspaper, approached EastBanc Technologies at a time when internet and other forms of news consumption were disrupting the traditional media industry. To stay relevant and competitive, they needed to leap into the digital world.

It soon emerged that none of the newspaper’s existing systems were ready for the four big trends that were changing the media landscape: mobile, the production and consumption of video content, organic presence/reach via social networks, and the internet at large.  

Our Approach

Instead of ripping and replacing the legacy systems, EastBanc Technologies built upon its existing content management system (Méthode), incrementally modernizing it by surrounding it with open-source components. As part of this initiative, gaining user buy-in is critical. EastBanc Technologies and the newspaper’s digital development operation implemented an education program for business users on the capabilities and benefits of the new tools and systems. Once buy-in was attained, our team started building these components. The long-lasting partnership between Washington Post and EastBanc Technologies yielded multiple projects. We developed the Post’s flagship iPad and Android Tablets apps, developed many outward facing Web apps and backend integrations, developed PostTV, and implemented API management, all with an emphasis on content accessibility and usability.

The Results

The culmination of these efforts enabled the paper’s main portal to become one of the fastest growing digital news sites in the U.S. Moreover, various modules jointly created with EastBanc Technologies turned into a packaged, modern, digital content management system that the newspaper is actively licensing to other organizations and create a new revenue stream with huge potential.