{"id":615291,"date":"2023-03-07T08:49:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T14:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/07\/the-washington-post-looks-to-bring-in-new-subcribers-with-its-first-in-house-game-on-the-record\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07T08:49:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T14:49:35","slug":"the-washington-post-looks-to-bring-in-new-subcribers-with-its-first-in-house-game-on-the-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/07\/the-washington-post-looks-to-bring-in-new-subcribers-with-its-first-in-house-game-on-the-record\/","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Post looks to bring in new subcribers with its first in-house game, \u201cOn the Record\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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March 6, 2023\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u00a04 min read<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 By Alexander Lee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tIvy Liu\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Last week, the Washington Post launched its first in-house gaming product, just over a month after announcing the closure of Launcher<\/a>, WaPo\u2019s gaming and esports vertical. The move shows that national publications like the Washington Post still believe games are a good business \u2014 even if they remain unconvinced about the long-term sustainability of gaming journalism.<\/p>\n

WaPo\u2019s first in-house game comes in the form of \u201cOn the Record,\u201d a Sporcle-esque news quiz that tests readers\u2019 knowledge of the week\u2019s top stories. The game refreshes every weekday, serving up daily single-question quizzes and a 10-question weekend quiz published on Fridays. The product was masterminded by Christopher Meighan and Mike Hume, respectively the director and editor of emerging news products at WaPo, as well as Amy Parlapiano, the department\u2019s dedicated quiz writer.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOn the Record\u201d has been in development since spring 2022, shortly after the New York Times\u2019 January 2022 acquisition of the popular word game Wordle \u2014 but Meighan denied that the hubbub around the acquisition directly inspired the initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it was there, but this wasn\u2019t stood up to be a competitor to Wordle, if that makes sense,\u201d Meighan said. \u201cIt was something that was kind of incubating before that, and we felt it was good to go into an area that was less word-game and more trivia-based.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Washington Post\u2019s news quiz scratches a different itch than Wordle, the similarities between the games extend beyond the timing. Both include knowledge-based, bite-sized daily challenges that can easily be shared with friends. \u201cOn the Record\u201d isn\u2019t the first news quiz game out there \u2014\u00a0the Times has published its own since 2018<\/a>, and local news services such as Daybreak<\/a> have their own, too \u2014\u00a0but it\u2019s a significant expansion on WaPo\u2019s pre-existing crossword and puzzle offerings.<\/p>\n

Meighan said he hopes to eventually use \u201cOn the Record\u201d as a subscriber funnel for The Post, much like the New York Times is leveraging Wordle<\/a>, but he stressed that this is a long-term vision rather than an immediate goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea with a lot of the things I\u2019ve launched is to introduce ourselves to different audiences,\u201d Meighan said. \u201cWe\u2019re in this mode of introducing it to the world and getting people on board with it and creating a fun daily habit, and we hope that eventually we can figure out ways to ladder that up into subs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Developing an in-house game to bring in new audiences while sunsetting the Washington Post\u2019s gaming coverage might feel like a contradiction \u2014 but it isn\u2019t, really. \u201cOn the Record\u201d certainly appeals to gamers, but its target audience is less core gamers and more newsreaders with a taste for gamification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe news game is kind of like the crossword, right? It appeals to that side of your brain that likes words and information, so it\u2019s the game to take the non-gamer into gaming,\u201d said Peter Ericson, a subscription expert and creator of the digital subscription platform Leaky Paywall. \u201cI think it\u2019s a good fit for any publisher to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is certainly still room for \u201cOn the Record\u201d to improve, particularly as a potential subscriber funnel. For one thing, the quiz currently lacks an easy way for players to build a more lasting relationship with its publisher. While Wordle prompts new users to log in or create a free New York Times account in order to link their results, for example, \u201cOn the Record\u201d lets them jump right in. The Washington Post is still ironing out the details, and Meighan admitted as such.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, they asked me to download the app, so at first I thought this might be a push for getting more app users, which may be something they\u2019re trying to do,\u201d Ericson said. \u201cHowever, nowhere in this was it like, \u2018What\u2019s your email address? Give us your email address.\u2019 They\u2019ve got to get that flow down.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the moment, a whopping 44 percent of Americans play Wordle, according to WordFinder\u2019s 2023 study on the topic<\/a> \u2014 but the Times acquired the game at the peak of its popularity rather than developing it in-house. If \u201cOn the Record\u201d reaches a fraction of Wordle\u2019s popularity, it could bring millions of new readers to the Washington Post. Although Meighan declined to provide specific figures, he said that \u201cadoption has been really good; it\u2019s been on par with what our other quizzes have done.\u201d To some extent, its continued growth might simply be a matter of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew games can take months or even years to gain traction,\u201d said Candice Bradley, director of content strategy at YourDictionary. \u201cThe good news for newspapers looking to create a word game is that once the game is in the mainstream, it tends to remain popular for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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