An Open Letter to the Washington Post Online

Dear Online Washington Post,

I sincerely believe you should partner with CSPAN in their coverage of the floor debates and other coverage. If you stand for covering Washington DC beyond the spin, this is the best way to

Also, this would allow you both to receive mutually re-inforcing brand and traffic value. Further, it would position you above CNN (or at least I believe so)–especially because it would give you more video content.

But, “Nathan, the floor debates are boring.” Oh, contrare, they generally have a good signal to noise ratio, and when they don’t you can edit that out of the video.

But, “Nathan, this will cost too much.” Cooperating on content shouldn’t cost too much. At the very least, if you didn’t use the videos you could use the transcripts.

But, “Nathan how could we make it a good filter and how could we make it fair?” I’m glad to provide those answers. I think you should hire a competent politically moderate and easy to work with former debater to do the editing (maybe thats me, maybe that someone else).

To make the floor debates more consumable, you have to make them like the stanford e-corner videos in modular form (of course this isn’t particularly new to you)

Also, the benefits of this new content in terms of not only social media engagement potential as well as search engine optimization are tremendous.

Second, the internet and talk radio is increasingly polarizing the nation. Only by having stories which encapsulate both sides of the issue can. Want purple state solutions, a more informed public, and more moderates to avoid the extremely of political polarization, perhaps this is your answer. Its not a panacea, but certainly a step in the right direction.

On the low end this is a $30,000 to $60,000 idea (yearly if it required a full new hire) which could yield serious results. I personally think you could do it for $5,000 or less. It also has the potential to create a new audience and community which could drive new and innovative streams of revenue. The newspaper industry is experiencing problems and this is one potential model which could help bridge the divide and create a real reason for people to engage with your stories and coverage, which can only help advertisers and the long term sustainability of your business enterprise.

People want substance. Many people (not all) don’t want spin. This is the answer and one thats budget conscious and strategic at the same time. I’m just a guy who wants to see our national conversation be more constructive and democratic and transparent. This solution would help in all the above respects. Thank you for your time and attention. I hope you see the insight and void in the market for this type of informative and substantive discourse.

Sincerely,
Nathan Ketsdever