The Washington Post launched its in-depth George Bush special yesterday. Embracing all manner of available multimedia, the segment includes a live discussion series between prominent figures on aspects of the controversial Bush administration - the first such discussion took place yesterday with Bob Woodward and Barton Gellman, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalists. Users also have the opportunity to submit their own questions to the live discussions, use an interactive timeline of key events during Bush's time in power and browse photo galleries documenting milestones in his life.

By no means the first series of its kind, the Washington Post's use of multimedia reflects a growing trend within the industry. The Wall Street Journal for example, recently produced its first long video series, detailing the demise of Wall Street and examining the reasons of the current financial crisis. In Europe, Le Figaro this month created an online photo gallery of its most iconic photographs, and will be putting a limited number of each of them up for sale - thereby simultaneously making use of multimedia on their website and pulling in a little more revenue.

The timing of the Washington Post's Bush special is key, capitalizing on the inevitable scrutiny that the current administration will come under in its final days. The media industry was hit with unprecedented demand on Election Day and will be keen to make the most of the world's interest leading up to Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20th. CNN and USA Today have already taken steps to optimize their reader and user capacity on the big day itself, when once again all eyes will be on Washington.

Source: Editor & Publisher