The Washington Post Promotes Matea Gold And Philip Rucker, Plans Expansion Of National Coverage And ‘Visual Storytelling’

deadline.com:

The Washington Post has named Matea Gold as national editor and Philip Rucker as deputy national editor, with plans to expand the department in a drive toward more visual storytelling.Gold succeeds Steve Ginsberg, who was named one of the Post’s managing editors last month.

Gold had served as acting national editor since then.Rucker, co-author of the recent I Alone Can Fix It with Carol Leonnig and an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, is moving to a management role.“We’re really going to double down on our ability to assess the state of democracy at this time and the stresses that are being put at that at every level,” Gold said in an interview. “We see this as a singular important focus for the national staff at this moment, and I think Phil and I are really united in our sense that this is a singular moment for the country.”Rucker said that there is a priority in “finding innovative storytelling techniques and ways to reach readers who are not paying attention right now.

So much about the threat to democracy, we have to find ways to get that information in front of new audiences and new readers and engage them beyond just the written word.”This week, the Post announced Rachel Van Dongen as director of elections, a new position.The Post also is seeking a visual enterprise editor for national.

Gold said that editor “is going to be part of the discussions about how we approach the different lines of reporting, what’s the best way to tell a story, how can we use audio and photos and videos and design in a way to captivate readers to make sure they don’t look away.” As an example, she pointed to America In Line, in which the Post sent photographers and reporters around the country to wait with people as they stood in line to