Signs of the Apocalypse: Washington Post Adds Gaming Room

Oh newsprint, you confound me so. Us here at QP know as well as anyone on this large set of interconnected tubes that media and journalism is changing. From a strictly environmental perspective, we need to stop using all this damned paper! From a business perspective, our print brothers and sisters are suffering growing losses, forced to adapt or die (like so many dot-com enterprises before them.) From a reader's perspective, well, you're reading this right now on a computer -- not on paper. It's faster, right? It is -- we promise.

Anyways! We're seeing the fallout of this trend all over the place these days -- sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Sometimes though, it's just plain strange. That's right, the Washington Post (yes, that Washington Post) has apparently added a, "game room" to their offices (a la the "dot-com-style workplace.") This room, containing, "Wii, air hockey, and foosball", is meant for keeping spirits high, especially when news like this is being reported on Yahoo! Finance.

Apparently, the gaming room is a result of the newly appointed publisher, Katharine Weymouth. A little digging on Ms. Weymouth revealed some interesting points, good ones at that.

Regarding her new position: "My approach is going to be to talk to as many people as I can at both [the business and internet side] and get a feel from there what works well separately, what doesn’t."

Her boss, CEO Don Graham, in the same interview, spoke of Weymouth's new job, regarding the digital space:

"[The digital space is] a big part of our future."
"[Her new job is to manage the] transition from a world we know very well to a world that's changing."

This kind of thing is happening all over the place folks, even at enthusiast press outlets. Will gaming journalism become journalism? Will the print media (even our own enthusiast press) go, "the way of the dodo?" The future is unwritten!

Join us next time for our new weekly section, Signs of the Apocalypse. Hey, the world's gotta end sooner or later, right?