Once upon a time in the mists of the distant past newspapers and news media more generally had target audiences. The audience for the New York Times was people who lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan or wish they did. The Washington Post reflected the views and interests of the Washington nomenklatura—people who held influential posts with the federal government, wanted to hold such posts, or were interested in what they thought. The target market for the Wall Street Journal was people who were interested in business. I’ve never actually been sure who the target market for the Chicago Tribune was but I’m pretty sure they had one.
A lot of things have changed but that hasn’t. There are still target markets. The NYT market seems to be fundamentally unchanged as is the case for the WSJ. The people and their views may have changed but those outlets still target those markets. The audience for the Chicago Tribune, increasingly, is people who used to live in Chicago.
But things are different for the WaPo. There are a few old hangers-on like David Ignatius who still seem to reflect the Washington prevailing wisdom. Consider this snapshot of the WaPo opinion page:
At least to me there’s no obvious target market. When you dig a little deeper it’s even more confusing. Lots of the regular columnists are writing about the New York City mayoral primary.
So, who’s the target market for today’s Washington Post? Is it Jeff Bezos? Do they still reflect the DC prevailing wisdom? Are they writing for themselves?
