Apperceptive | Case Studies

Washington Post Newsweek Interactive

Washington Post Newsweek Interactive (WPNI) is redefining the Op-Ed page. A masthead’s editorial opinion used to be starkly set out as “pro or con” every evening before going to print. Now the opinions can come from up to hundreds of trusted sources, and letters to the editor come as thousands of comments a day. The best content is chosen by the editors and published to the front page.

We designed, implemented and deployed On Faith — a global conversation on religion with a panel of distinguished figures from the academy, the faith traditions, and journalism — and PostGlobal, a similar site focusing on current events. The sites are powered by Movable Type Enterprise and knit together with custom plugins to meet the requirements of the editorial, management, and systems team at WPNI. In addition to responding to the question of the day, participating panelists also have their own full Movable Type blog.

After the initial success of their OnFaith and PostGlobal blogs, Washington Post Newsweek Interactive asked Apperceptive to take the discussion a step further and develop a live chat application. The addition allows their stable of contributors to debate issues live on the site with updates relayed to readers as they happen. When the chat is over, the transcript is archived. The application is driven by a Movable Type plugin that allows any of WPNI's existing blog authors to participate in a chat.