WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 5, 2012--
WaPo Labs, a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO),
today announced that it has named Rob Malda as Chief Strategist and
Editor-at-Large. Malda, or CmdrTaco as he is better known to the tech
community, is the founder of the well-known technology news site
Slashdot, where he served in a variety of leadership roles during his
14-year tenure. He will report to Vijay Ravindran, the Post Company’s
Chief Digital Officer, with a focus on helping build next generation
news products, including expanding the success of the Social Reader
application, which more than 16 million users have downloaded in under
six months.
Ravindran said, “Rob is a true online media pioneer. The number of
innovations that Slashdot brought to the online news world is hard to
match— from what is still the best commenting experience on the web to
creating a hyper-loyal community that led to sites referenced in
Slashdot posts to being ‘slashdotted.’ We’re excited to have Rob join
the WaPo Labs team to help build us and evolve our news products.”
“The press release format really doesn’t let me adequately express my
excitement for the chance to take my experience in social news into a
far broader context,” said Malda. “WaPo Labs is actively and rapidly
experimenting with new ways to bridge social and algorithmically
aggregated news with the kind of expert journalism crafted every day by
The Washington Post. I see this blending as the future of online news,
and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute on both the
product and editorial side.”
About WaPo Labs
WaPo Labs is an innovative digital team focused on experimenting with
emerging technologies. In addition to working closely with the Company’s
news websites, the team created and launched two new products in 2011,
Washington Post Social Reader and Trove. Washington Post Social Reader
is a news application on Facebook that enables users to share what they
are reading and see what their friends are reading. Social Reader
aggregates content from The Washington Post, Slate, Foreign Policy,
Express, the Root and more than 30 other content partners to create a
socially powered newswire of articles. Launched in September 2011,
Social Reader has acquired more than 16 million users in less than six
months. Trove is a personalized news site and the technology behind
Social Reader. Trove.com aggregates news from more than 10,000 sources
across the web and allows users to customize channels, based on their
interests.
Source: The Washington Post Company
The Washington Post Company
Rima Calderon, 202-334-6617
calderonr@washpost.com
