WASHINGTON, Apr 20, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Today, The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) launches Trove (www.trove.com), a free, personalized site that aggregates news across subjects of interest and important headlines of the day. Trove creates a customized news experience that factors in a reader's likes and dislikes, combining state-of-the-art technology with expertise from the newsroom. And Trove's "Comments" feature invites users to connect with others who share similar interests.

"Trove offers a place of first resort for your news, whether it is information you want to know or should know. Because Trove is all about the individual user, the experience is customized and different for everyone," said Vijay Ravindran, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of The Washington Post Company. "We believe launching Trove is a good step toward understanding what the future of news could look like. And we're pleased to have Ford on board to support our development of personalized news and our experimentation with new approaches toward online advertising."

The site takes advantage of Facebook Connect to pull in a user's interests as outlined by his or her Facebook profile to help jump start personalization. In the coming months, readers can expect to see more social media features and site capabilities with Facebook Connect.

Beyond algorithms, an editorial team selects news of the day-- "Editors' Picks"--to feature on Trove. Trove's editors also create subject-based channels that feature recommended sources. And users can create their own channels--whether it's a "Belieber" channel about Justin Beiber or the price of oil in the Middle East--to capture news about a personal interest that may not already exist on Trove.

Trove, which has been in private beta since mid-February, is available on the desktop, Android and Blackberry, so readers can enjoy personalized news wherever they go.

Ravindran added: "When our site launched in private beta, we received a lot of feedback. Even with today's public launch, we're constantly evaluating the user experience and plan to continue to experiment and evolve."

Trove is created by WaPo Labs, a technology team of The Washington Post Company tasked with developing and incubating new-media opportunities and strategies.

For more information and to begin your personalized news experience, go to www.trove.com.

About Trove (www.trove.com)

Trove is a free, personalized site, produced by The Washington Post Company, that aggregates news across subjects of interest and important headlines of the day. In addition to state-of-the-art algorithms, editors create a customized news experience that factors in each reader's likes and dislikes. With over 10,000 sources, Trove caters to specific personal interests while also featuring essential news from leading media organizations. Available on the desktop, Blackberry and Android, Trove offers an active social news experience, unique for every user.

SOURCE: The Washington Post Company

The Washington Post Company
Jennifer Lee, 202-334-5207
jennifer.lee@wpost.com