Newspaper & Mailroom

The Washington Times Surge

Friday 14. November 2008 - During "Election 2008" The Washington Times surged in major national stories and exclusive interviews that received extensive coverage on television, cable, radio and blogs across the country.

The Washington Times surge included a 300% increase in website traffic since January to the newly redesigned www.washingtontimes.com. Washington Times stories have been featured prominently on other heavily trafficked websites such as The Drudge Report, The Huffington Post, Real Clear Politics and other major blogs and news sites.

The website had more than 1 million page views over the 24-hour period from midday Tuesday November 4 to midday Wednesday. The October monthly website traffic hit all-time highs of 4.7 million unique visitors and 14.5 million page views. The post-election Wednesday distribution topped 130,000.

“This kind of dramatic growth has enabled us to serve a broader range of our advertisers’ and marketing partners’ needs,” said Randall Brandt, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at The Times. “The response has been tremendous.”

After an outpouring of interest in the Wednesday post-election newspaper, the newsroom created an expanded edition with two special sections: one previewing the transition and the other offering readers a souvenir commemorative section documenting President-elect Obama’s rise to power. The special commemorative edition is on track to sell 165,000 copies, many at $2 or more each, and will thereby eclipse the previous Times circulation record of 157,000.

“The Washington Times is a must read for political and policy leaders and a place where readers can get news they aren’t finding anywhere else,” said Executive Editor John Solomon.

This surge was the result of 174 reporters and editors dedicated to not only the beat stories but also to enterprise and exclusive reporting consistent with The Washington Times mission to inform and engage Washington, the nation, and the world on the important political, national security, and cultural issues of the day with in-depth coverage and analysis.

“Over the course of the election, we produced more than 200 exclusive investigative pieces ranging from the abuse of veterans, to Obama’s connections to a failed bank; conducted 176 newsmaker interviews including our widely read interview of John McCain aggressively distancing himself from President Bush; shot more than 5,000 photos of the campaign; posted more than 80 photo galleries online; and produced more than 150 videos ranging from original shows like ‘Two Guys in a Newsroom’ to original documentaries like Katie Falkenberg’s State of American health care which has attracted more than 2 million views on AOL alone,” said Solomon.

Other examples of major headline-breaking Times news stories included:

— Ted Kennedy’s ongoing efforts to craft a Health Care Plan for early
consideration next year
— The McCain campaign’s targeting of Pennsylvania Hillary voters
— The $700k cost of President-elect Obama’s stage for his speech in
Germany
— The interview with Senator Phil Gramm, who served as co-chair and
chief economic adviser to the McCain campaign in which he said America
was a “nation of whiners” suffering from a “mental recession.”
— The McCain campaign jettisoning of lobbyists working on the campaign
— FBI asking questions about the Rezko land deal with President-elect
Obama
— Obama Fundraiser Penny Pritzker’s Role in promoting subprime loans
that bankrupted customers at her bank
— Ohio state workers illegally digging into Joe the Plumber’s background



Washington Times exclusive interviews have included such newsmakers as Defense Secretary Robert Gates who talked about his recollections of 9/11 and changes at the Department and national security since then; Sallai Meridor, the Israeli Ambassador to the United State who discussed Russian involvement in the Middle East and the first detailed explanation about why Israel is negotiating with arch-enemy Syria; and Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s president who discussed his push for expanded NATO presence in his own country even after the Georgia-Russia crisis. In addition, after interviewing Iranian President Ahmadinejad, The Times wrote exclusively about his discussion of his efforts to blame his own severe economic problems in Iran to the U.S. financial crisis.

The protest by The Washington Times to the last-minute decision of the Obama campaign to eject long time campaign reporter, Christina Bellantoni, from the campaign plane for the last 72 hours of the election also won widespread accolades across the country. The fact that the ejection came after The Times editorial page endorsed Senator McCain was noted by other newspaper editors. Editorials praised the decision to register strong complaints and the story received widespread coverage in the news in the closing days of the campaign.

“We will now build on this successful surge in The Washington Times media presence by dedicating ourselves to the best coverage of the New Administration and New Congress,” said Solomon.

Chris Dolan, who directed Times campaign coverage, will be stepping up to become Assistant Managing Editor of the newspaper, while Stephen Dinan will serve as our White House bureau chief, leading a team that also includes Christina Bellantoni and Jon Ward. On Capitol Hill, David Sands will serve as Congressional Bureau Chief and lead a team that includes both S.A. Miller and Kara Rowland.

Joe Curl is taking on the new assignment of senior national political correspondent, where he’ll lead coverage of everything from Sarah Palin’s next steps and congressional redistricting to the realignment of voter blocs in the 2010 and 2012 elections. Curl will also author a new political column.