I’m not sure how long it’s been up, but I noticed it this morning. And I think it’s the most distinctive newspaper motto since the New York Times adopted “All the news that’s fit to print.”
The new motto has been getting a lot of coverage lately, getting mentioned over at the progressive Mother Jones and by the Washington insider news outlet Politico.
CNN’s Brian Stelter noted on Twitter that the slogan had been seen on the WaPo’s Snapchat page as of last Friday, and that Post owner Jeff Bezos used the phrase at an event last year.
Post spokeswoman Kris Moratti told CNN:
“This is actually something we’ve said internally for a long time in speaking about our mission. We thought it would be a good, concise value statement that conveys who we are to the many millions of readers who have come to us for the first time over the last year. We started with our newest readers on Snapchat, and plan to roll it out on our other platforms in the coming weeks.”
The phrase has been in play at the Post Bob Woodward speechfor some time now – with it showing up in a speech at Columbia Journalism School from Oct. 23, 2012.
Strive to unravel: "Secret government. Democracies die in darkness." -Bob Woodward #PriceofPolitics #cuj13 pic.twitter.com/11u9szob
— Coleen Jose (@ColeenJose) October 24, 2012
As a side note, the new slogan has brought this scene from the first Star Wars prequel – The Phantom Menace in a number of tweets:
