At Media Party, Greg Barber, Director of Newsroom Product at The Washington Post, framed product teams as “force multipliers” that bridge the gap between editorial, engineering, and commercial departments. During the COVID-19 pandemic and key election cycles, his team coordinated critical data collection, essential health translations, and interactive voter tools that streamlined remote newsroom operations while enhancing public reporting.
Managing limited resources and rapid change requires establishing radical transparency and trust across all departments. Barber emphasized that building strong cross-functional relationships ensures collaborative efforts remain meaningful, empowering newsrooms to continuously refine content management systems (CMS) and support ongoing diversity and inclusion initiatives.
