Rieder: The resurgent 'Washington Post'

What a difference a billionaire makes.

It wasn't that long ago that The Washington Post was reeling, shedding staff and trimming ambitions as ad revenue plummeted. Then last summer the Graham family, which owned it and loved it, decided the iconic news organization would have better prospects in the hands (and with the deep pockets) of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

Now there's a spring in the Post's step once again. Last week it won two Pulitzer Prizes, including the prestigious public service award, and was a finalist in two other categories. The newsroom is excited about and energized by the leadership of Executive Editor Marty Baron, who arrived before Bezos bought the paper. And, most important, the news outlet is becoming a laboratory for experiments in how to transform itself for the digital age.

In interviews at the Post Tuesday, Baron and Publisher Katharine Weymouth, a member of the Graham family, talked about life A.B. (After Bezos' arrival) and what lies ahead.

"It's really exciting around here," Weymouth says. "We're investing again and building a digital future for news."

The nature of the investing illustrates the emerging strategy. After years of steady shrinkage, the newsroom is in the midst of making three dozen hires, and more may lie ahead. But don't expect an explosion of traditional newspaper positions like local reporters. The focus is digital, launching new blogs and verticals and reinforcing existing ones, with a heavy emphasis on national and international content.

The goal is to attract an ever-increasing audience online, with plenty of attention to making it engaging on mobile devices. That traffic jump won't come from beefing up regional coverage.

And, Baron says, "Print is not going to grow."

The Post is redesigning its website. It has launched an overnight news desk, and is building a breaking news team to jump on stories as they emerge around the world, hopefully adding a fresh angle or take.

"We recognize that people are consuming news 24 hours a day," Baron says. "We have to be part of that."

But while stepping up efforts in the rapid-fire world of digital news, Baron, the former editor of The Boston Globe, says the Post remains committed to deeply reported stories and elegant writing. "That's what differentiates us from other people," he says. "It's not just click bait. You can't do just one or the other."

While the reporting roster is not likely to grow, Baron says he's confident the Post's 600-plus newsroom staff can pull off the labor-intensive deep dives as well as the quick hits.

So far the digital initiatives — blogs and verticals, a breaking news desk — are hardly revolutionary. But Bezos has only owned the paper since October, and he has stressed that he takes the long view. Can we expect more dramatic developments anytime soon? Baron smiles meaningfully, pauses and says, "Give us a little time. I'm not ready to say."

Weymouth and Baron make clear that Bezos did not acquire the Post with a grand plan for turning things around. He has no interest in micromanaging the enterprise — after all, he has a fairly demanding day job. But he's deeply involved in plotting the future.

Baron says the boss brings with him "ideas, questions and capital."

Bezos meets with his top executives roughly every three months, either in Seattle or D.C. There's also a tightly structured, hour-long teleconference every two weeks. And the Amazon founder will send the occasional e-mail.

Pre-Bezos, the paper didn't have the resources to implement some of its digital hopes and dreams. After he took over, Bezos asked the management team for ideas. He has signed off on some and added some of his own.

Bezos, who bought the paper for $250 million, "is involved at the strategic level, not the operational level," Weymouth says. "He doesn't expect us to figure it out in a year. He wants us to experiment. It's kind of a perfect world."

Although print may not be poised to grow, it's also not going away nearly as quickly as many digital enthusiasts have predicted. It sill provides the lion's share of revenue for newspaper companies. While we live in an increasingly digital society, Baron expects the print version of the Post to be around for quite awhile. And, despite their slow start, he thinks legacy news outlets can play an important role in transformation. He cites the digital chops of The New York Times, The Atlantic and USA TODAY.

"There's an assumption that organizations with roots in print are yesterday's news, and that's not true at all," he says. "Some of the most exciting things are being done at traditional news organizations, and we hope that's true at The Washington Post."

Thanks to the advent of Bezos, the Post has a golden opportunity to reinvent its future. The new owner has said he wanted to give the paper "runway," and it's up to the Post management and staff to take advantage of it.

"If we can look back in 20 years and say we've done something exciting," Weymouth says, "that would be pretty cool."