The Washington Post was one of the first to pick up the trend of natural advertising introducing new advertising formats first in the newspaper and then online. In addition The Washington Post introduced the Brand Connect program through which advertisers could connect materials published on other sources and publish them in WP. Thus readers trusted promotional publications more and articles were labeled sponsored promoted or presented by.
According to research firm eMarketer.com US native ad spend was . billion in . Native ad revenue at The Washington Post accounted for of the company's total revenue. The CFO of WP called this cell phone number list publication format a kind of spiritual journey into the world of the reader. In the s only The Washington Post and The New York Times dared to publish secret documents about the Vietnam War despite the threats of the authorities. And in the early s The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein played a prominent role in the resignation of President Richard Nixon by revealing details of the Watergate scandal.
By covering important social issues journalists were the ones who shaped history and influenced the course of events. Bezos' main idea was that the editors and journalists of The Washington Post learned to think big asking the question what will the media look like in the future. And how journalism will survive on the Internet. Will it perform the same function of the fourth estate in the world of social networks and new media.