washingtonpost.com Launches Innovative “Issue Coverage Tracker” for Campaign ‘08
New Application First in a Suite of Portable Content
WASHINGTON, September 5, 2007 —washingtonpost.com, an award-winning news and information Web site, today announced the release of the “Issue Coverage Tracker,” a new application that compares the volume of press coverage between candidates and the major issues of the 2008 presidential race. Featured on washingtonpost.com, the application is being made freely available for distribution to any user’s website. Developed by Daylife, a news distribution platform that analyzes and organizes news coverage from thousands of sources, the “Issue Coverage Tracker” has a compelling graphic presentation that is fun and easy-to-use.
The application, which features an interactive display designed to encourage participation, provides a unique lens on election news, allowing users to customize their experience by candidate or topic, ranging from abortion to health care to the war in Iraq. Drawing information from thousands of news and opinion sources, the “Issue Coverage Tracker” provides a quick visual scale of coverage between candidates and the issues, allowing a user to:
“As a leader in political news, it was important for us to offer an innovative program that would allow our users to easily understand what’s being discussed by the field of ’08 presidential candidates. And we made it portable so users can take it with them to their blogs or social networking sites,” said Jim Brady, Executive Editor, washingtonpost.com. “This tool makes it really easy to get a quick look or dive in deep thanks to our partner Daylife, who built a comprehensive service that yields up-to-the-minute results.”
“washingtonpost.com’s expertise in political coverage makes it the perfect home for the Issue Tracker,” said Upendra Shardanand, founder & CEO of Daylife. “It’s been a fantastic collaboration.”
The “Issue Coverage Tracker” is part of a new initiative to offer innovative, portable applications that allow people to take washingtonpost.com journalism and databases off the site itself. Among what’s coming soon is an “Election Tracker,” which pulls campaign information from washingtonpost.com events, financial and news databases. “Issue Coverage Tracker” accompanies other washingtonpost.com political applications, such as “Iraq Strategy” “White House Watch” and Chris Cillizza’s “The Fix.”
“Making our content portable is an important part of our core philosophy that our readers should be able to engage with our content and with each other around our content where and how they choose,” Brady said. “We plan on continuing to develop these applications and look forward to getting feedback from our readers about them.”
To see the “Issue Coverage Tracker”
please click here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/issues/
To see all available portable applications,
please click here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/widgets/
About Daylife
The Daylife platform gathers news from thousands of sources – mainstream to blog – and provides sites with the ability to generate more content and inventory, greater relevance around their content, richer experiences, and engaging applications.
Customers include CNNMoney, Parade.com, The Huffington Post, TreeHugger.com, and The World Economic Forum. Daylife has investment from Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Europe), Arts Alliance and the New York Times Company. The company is privately held and headquartered in New York City.
About washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com is the award-winning news and information Web site of The Washington Post. It offers world-class journalism, a remarkable blend of traditional reporting, and innovative, multimedia content that provides an unmatched level of depth and texture to breaking stories as well as features, plus unique ways for reader to engage with the site, its capabilities and content.
The recipient of the first-ever Emmy for original video journalism online and washingtonpost.com has won numerous other awards, including an EPpy Award for Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Site, several Digital Edge Awards, a 2007 National Journalism Award for Web Reporting, National Press Photographers’ Association Best of Photojournalism Award, and three consecutive Edward R. Murrow Awards for Overall Excellence for Non-Broadcast Affiliated Website, among others.
washingtonpost.com is one of five online properties produced by Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the online publishing subsidiary of The Washington Post Company. (NYSE: WPO)
For more information, please visit www.washingtonpost.com.
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Media Contacts:© The Washington Post Company
