Washington Post in the news

I read a couple interesting stories yesterday — one about the Washington Post, the other by the Washington Post ombudsman.

The New Republic wrote a piece about the current state of the Washington Post and its problems with finding its identity as media are changing. An excerpt:

But the Post seems to be paralyzed-and trapped. It can’t go completely local because the local news in Washington is, in many respects, national; and its status as the paper of record for national politics is under assault from numerous competitors--competitors it isn’t clear the Post can defeat. Meanwhile, the tense, even hostile, relationship between the print and online divisions hasn’t made the paper’s search for a coherent identity any easier.

And, from the Washington Post ombudsman, Andrew Alexander, a piece responding to readers' complaints about increasing numbers of "typos and syntax" errors in stories. I love the conclusion he draws (very true!):

In the end, nothing can replace the experienced, fastidious copy editor. And nothing can help them more than reporters getting it right in the first place.