As the New York Times and Washington Post experience a surge of renewed relevance and subscriber growth, the two have both announced new branding campaigns. The Washington Post has unveiled their new slogan, Democracy Dies in Darkness, and has placed it under their logo online. The logo was first unveiled at Snapchat and has now been put on the news website.
Spokeswoman Kris Coratti told Brian Stelter of CNN, “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 New York Times has also announced its own new advertising campaign which focuses on the truth. A television commercial about the truth will air during the Oscars and serves as the unofficial kickoff for the campaign. It will be the Times’s first television advertisement since 2010 and first television brand campaign in a decade. Prices for a 30 second commercial during the Academy Awards ran as high as $2.5 million, according to Broadcast and Cable. The advertising campaign will also extend to television, digital, and billboard buys.
“At The Times, we have a 166-year history of an adherence to the highest standards in journalism and a sense of mission that propels our approach to how we cover the world. We are committed to properly resourced, tough-minded and independent journalism, delivered without fear or favor. In a world where there is so much uncertainty about what is real and what is fake news, we remain steadfastly committed to a search for the truth,” said publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. in a statement.