Two of the country’s biggest publications are The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Considering that they often both follow the same news stories, their readers may wonder what the difference is between them.
Those who are looking to start reading either publication may wonder if they should choose one over the other.
Here’s a detailed look at how The New York Times and The Washington Post compare with one another.
The Washington Post Vs. The New York Times
1. Political Bias
When comparing The New York Times with The Washington Post, it’s important to know the political bias of each.
When consuming any type of media, one should always oneself what story or message the article is trying to deliver.
That message also carries a bias in some way.
Proud followers of both The New York Times and The Washington Post will state that they’re both neutral in their political bias.
This isn’t always the case.
Both publications tend to lean slightly left.
That’s because they believe in freedom of the press which is a liberal concept.
They do not believe in baseless claims passed off as news.
Because of that, both newspapers try to stay in the middle of the political spectrum as much as possible.
The New York Times, in particular, is great at investigative journalism.
They’re not afraid to ask tough questions of anyone regardless of their political leaning.
Their ultimate goal is to uncover the truth and report on it.
A few critics of these publications often state that they ask softer questions to liberals or that they’re more forgiving.
One only needs to look at their reports to see that they can be as tough on liberals as they are on conservatives.
The Washington Post is also known for superior investigative journalism.
One of their biggest claims to fame is their report on Nixon and the Watergate Scandal.
Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were the reporters responsible for the article.
They were investigating the June 17, 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters.
The building was the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC.
When they started to receive resistance among the FBI and police officers involved with the case, their interest only grew.
The police had caught the burglars, and it was clear that they were professionals.
They were the type of professionals that someone hires.
After managing to get a source from within the FBI known only as “Deep Throat” and having one of the burglars talk, the two reporters were able to uncover the crime of the century.
Their reporting led to the investigation and resignation of a president.
Since then, The Washington Post has always tried to present both sides of the political spectrum in their reporting.
Both publications believe that the facts are facts, and they’re painted neither red nor blue.
Finally, others believe that because both publications report scientific findings, that also makes them a liberal publication.
Reporting is always based on facts, and so is science.
The two naturally go hand-in-hand.
They also both believe strongly in freedom of the press.
Without it, democracy would cease to exist.
2. Digital Transformation
One of the most important comparisons to make is how both publications adapted to the digital age.
Both The New York Times and The Washington Post started as printed papers.
The goal before the digital age was to sell as many printed copies as they could.
They were only able to sell in areas where they had distributors.
The digital age changed all that.
With more people receiving their news online rather than through print, both publications needed to make changes to survive the abrupt change.
The New York Times has arguably performed better than The Washington Post in this regard.
It started its transition to the digital age early.
As soon the publisher noticed the trend of declining paper sales and an increase in digital news, they started to create The New York Times website.
The publication would offer both printed copies and digital copies.
Unlike other news agencies, they decided to use a subscription model.
For a low cost, readers could access the website and all the articles within it.
With several more writers brought on to help expand the news they were delivering online, readers had plenty of articles to consume compared to the price they’re paying.
This is something that The New York Times has done a great job of advertising, too.
They allow their readers to read a certain number of articles each month for free.
These articles are usually engaging, interesting, and thought-provoking.
It sells the idea that The New York Times does great reporting—which they do.
It also gives the reader a glimpse into all the other types of articles they can read if they subscribe.
Keeping their subscription costs low, The New York Times has seen great success with its digital publications.
They bring in money through that system and also through ads that they run on their website.
The New York Times has been so successful with this method that many other new agencies are taking note.
A competing digital news site, Politico, has been testing the subscription model themselves.
They believe that people are willing to pay for fact-checked and authentic news from digital sources.
Finally, The New York Times understands how to work the subscription model to its favor.
They often run holiday sales on their subscriptions to make the price even more enticing to would-be readers.
The Washington Post also made the switch to digital publication once they noticed that printed copies weren’t selling as much.
Although they haven’t seen the same success as The New York Times, their recent change in ownership may change that.
Jeff Bezos is the current owner of The Washington Post.
His ability to make a global enterprise has been proven with the success of Amazon.
Since he’s taken the reins, he’s been investing heavily into their digital platforms.
His goal is to bring The Washington Post to everyone across the world.
Unlike The New York Times, The Washington Post does not use a subscription model.
They use ads on their articles instead.
This allows their readers to read as many articles as they’d like without hindering their experience.
As the consumers read, the company receives money from the advertisers on the page.
The problem is that many readers often use some type of ad blocker.
That keeps ads from delivering to viewers which reduces the amount of money that The Washington Post could be receiving.
They do have two other subscriptions for Pulitzer-winning articles and books, but the majority of their articles are free for viewing.
As digital news continues to change, both powerhouses of investigative reporting will have to continue to adapt to remain viable.
3. Awards And Accolades
Reporters can receive awards when they write a piece that’s inspiring or requires a great deal of work and study to compose.
Those reporters are often awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have accumulated a number of awards and accolades to their names over the course of their histories.
The New York Times has 132 Pulitzer Prizes to their name.
They also have 23 Emmy nominations from the year 2020 alone.
Also under their belt are two Oscar-nominated films and 330 SND print and digital awards in 2020.
Considering most of those awards and accolades come from a single year, it’s clear to see that The New York Times has a long list of winning Pulitzer Prizes and other awards.
One of the most well-known articles from The New York Times is “The Pentagon Papers”.
This was an article written in 1972.
It dug into the actual cost and happenings of the Vietnam War.
Many other publications were sharing the propaganda that the government was feeding them.
The New York Times wasn’t satisfied with that.
They dug deep into the Vietnam War and exposed what was happening there.
The Pentagon Papers are one of the main reasons Americans started to believe that the war in Vietnam needed to end.
It would spark a series of protests and usher in a peace movement that would define the 1970s.
The Washington Post also has a long history of winning awards and accolades.
They have 69 Pulitzer Prizes, 18 Nieman Fellowships, and 368 White House News Photographers’ Association awards.
They also have many digital awards for their digital publications.
While The New York Times may be best known for its Pentagon Papers, The Washington Post is best known for its role in uncovering the Watergate scandal.
Their reporting made it clear that the President of the United States was spying on the Democratic party.
Not only would this result in the investigation and subsequent resignation of a president from office, but it would also have long-lasting effects on the American people.
Before the Watergate scandal, the American people had a lot of trust in their presidents.
They believed they were above reproach.
The Watergate scandal made them realize that presidents were human, too, and prone to making mistakes.
The office has since always held a degree of scrutiny for anyone who enters it.
While The New York Times has more awards than The Washington Post in terms of Pulitzer Prizes, it’s The Washington Post that may have credit for the most history-altering article ever written.
4. Readership Reach
The next area to compare The New York Times and The Washington Post is their readership reach.
The New York Times started in New York City.
To this day, New Yorkers consider the paper the authority on investigative journalism.
While the publication found a healthy and loyal following in its home city, the editors didn’t want to stop there.
They wanted to bring The New York Times to the world.
Even before the digital age, The New York Times invested heavily in its ability to expand.
This was something The Washington Post did not do originally.
The New York Times put up distributors in key cities and ensured that they could get the latest issues out in a timely manner.
Then they set their eyes on the global market.
The New York Times eventually started to show up in big European cities like London and Paris.
They spread into Canada and even as far as Australia.
When the digital age arrived, The New York Times was quick to start spreading its digital products as well.
In 2020, it added another 1.6 million subscribers to its online publication.
Its reach outside of the country also remains strong.
Of The New York Times’ readership, 16% comes from outside of the United States.
Of that 16%, 10% are Canadians while the remaining 6% are Australian.
Other countries read The New York Times as well, but those readers are smaller in number compared to Canada and Australia.
The demographics of The New York Times are also interesting.
Around 91% of its readers identify as Democrats.
Despite that, only 49% of its readers believe that The New York Times is a trustworthy news source.
Despite their success, they’ve also seen a decline in their print sales.
The number of their print sales dropped by 7.4% in 2020.
One should also consider the state of the world during that time as well.
With the global pandemic raging in 2020, many readers may have decided to cut their subscriptions to save extra money.
However, one only needs to look at the overall readership to see that there are fewer people reading The New York Times now than in its heyday.
Between the years 2000 and 2020, their readership fell by 55.57%.
This coincides with the rise of the digital age.
As people began to receive quality news—or what they believed was quality news—from other sources, they relied less on major publishers like The New York Times.
Studies looking at The Washington Post have seen the same shrinkage.
They also share the same pool of readers as The New York Times.
Around 61% of its readership identifies as Democrats.
However, only 7% identify as Republican.
The remaining percentage are readers who consider themselves centralists or don’t identify with either party.
According to reports made by their platform, The Washington Post saw 75 million visitors to its digital platform in May 2021 alone.
Of those visitors, many of them used their smartphones to access the website rather than their computers.
A large portion of those readers were Millennials.
They made up 26% of the traffic.
Finding information about their current subscribers that doesn’t come from The Washington Post itself is difficult.
They don’t report on certain aspects of the business.
There also aren’t any recent studies to see its decline or growth in recent years.
The most recent study, done in 2012, saw that the number of subscribers to The Washington Post was also declining.
The average weekly distribution of its physical paper dropped to 484,385 people.
Part of that may be because The Washington Post is from Washington, D.C.
It doesn’t have quite as large of a population as New York City, although it is large.
The Washington Post also spread its wings slower than The New York Times.
Whereas The New York Times invested in itself to spread its publication, The Washington Post focused on other things for a time.
Now it has a larger reach, but it is starting to decline the same as The New York Times.
Part of their drive comes from Jeff Bezos who is keen to see The Washington Post become a massive online news outlet.
They publish far more articles than The New York Times does online.
They’ve also expanded their reporting topics to include almost every topic a person could want to read about.
With more online publications looking to make their mark in the digital world, both The New York Times and The Washington Post will face new challenges to stay on top.
5. Opinion Pieces
The concept of using opinion pieces in a major publication is always controversial.
How a publication handles the opinion pieces can assuage these fears or make them worse.
The main problem that readers have with opinion pieces is that they’re often not fact-checked.
They’re sensational instead.
They also garner a lot of interest.
The problem is that since The New York Times or The Washington Post chose to publish the piece, it gives the opinion article a semblance of legitimacy and credibility.
That’s how false news can quickly spread.
When it comes to opinion pieces, both The New York Times and The Washington Post take different approaches.
The New York Times calls its opinion pieces Guest Essays.
They make the distinction clear between Editorial pieces and Opinion pieces.
It is clear that the pieces that appear in the Opinion section are not fact-checked, and that it’s the responsibility of the reader to fact-check the claims made.
Despite this, The New York Times welcomes most people to write for their Opinions section.
They believe that it helps keep their publication from going too far to one side.
Since the Opinion part of the paper is open to the public, it allows the public to hear what the other side has to say.
It’s a platform for sharing different perspectives.
The Washington Post also believes in offering different perspectives by hosting an Opinion section.
They still call this section Opinion.
It’s different from their Editorial section which includes pieces written by their paid employees.
The Washington Post is a bit more open to those who want to write for them in the Opinion section.
They have several different Opinion sections to make it easier for readers to find topics that interest them.
However, it’s easy for certain individuals to take advantage of The Washington Post’s Opinion section to push an idea and spread a message.
Considering that The Washington Post’s owner is a famous businessman, it’s not surprising to see topics that are against taxing the wealthy or imposing certain business regulations.
When it comes to Opinion pieces, both publications can fall prey to sensationalist news that can tarnish their reputations.
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Thomas Gjerek says
I am not convinced that The New York Times does a superior job at investigative journalism than The Washington Post, but I have read the NYT for years and the WP for only weeks, so this is just an initial impression.
Both papers’ articles are quite thorough though the WP seem more accessible and the NYT seems to come off, at times, as intellectual elitists.
CP says
Re: “WP seem more accessible and the NYT seems to come off, at times, as intellectual elitists.”
By the words they use in their articles?
Anonymous says
Re:: accessible and intellectual elitists. By the words they use in their articles?