The Washington Post sums up your year Spotify Wrapped–style

"We initially considered a traditional retrospective. We pivoted when we understood that our readers were more interested in experiences centered on their personality rather than having them revisit their favorite content from the year."

Article translated by Marine Slavitch — Original version published on the Nieman Lab website on November 30, 2022

When Spotify Wrapped first launched in December 2016, the streaming company proved that user data could become an aesthetic and engaging product meant to be shared.

Recently, the Washington Post launched its own personalized year-in-review on the same model, allowing their subscribers to look back on their reading throughout the year. Initially called Newsprint, the service was quickly renamed Washington Post Wrapped by users who have shared their statistics so far.

For those unfamiliar with it, Spotify Wrapped is an annual personalized summary that reviews users' listening habits, including their favorite songs, podcasts, and artists. The feature is presented vertically in the style of an Instagram story and is designed to be shared on social media.

The Washington Post version tells readers the number of articles and authors they read in the year, which topics they shared most on social media, their favorite newspaper sections, and their preferred journalists. Using this data, Newsprint also suggests articles users might have missed, newsletters that could interest them, and other authors to follow. The service's main screen features a fingerprint where key figures from this year in review blend with adjectives that summarize the reader's personality.

The Post indicated it sent an email to "certain" subscribers on Wednesday, November 30 to inform them of the arrival of this feature. Other subscribers will be informed in mid-December, a newspaper representative clarified.

Jessica Gilbert, Product Manager at Washington Post, sees Newsprint as a way to further personalize the reader experience. "We worked on developing Newsprint throughout 2022, drawing on user requests and internal feedback," she explains. "We initially considered a traditional year-in-review approach. We pivoted when we realized our readers were more interested in experiences centered around their personality rather than revisiting their favorite content from the year."

Annual recaps like Spotify Wrapped are both fun and useful for businesses and users. These features generate excitement and bring back into the spotlight the content that inspired people to subscribe in the first place. The Post version reminds subscribers which articles they enjoyed reading in 2022, highlights the journalists who keep them coming back, and suggests new reading ideas based on their news interests.

In both cases, companies gauge what resonates with users. Subscribers learn something potentially new about their personality and see the real value in continuing to pay for their subscription.

Sharing these retrospectives on social media allows audiences to compare their personalities with those of others, creating engagement between users and between artists (or journalists) and their audiences. People share screenshots and in doing so create an entire stream of content related to these annual summaries. Some display self-deprecation, others gently boast. Memes—humorous variations on these screenshots—are everywhere.

In 2021, the Spotify Wrapped feature was mentioned in 1.2 million tweets and its screenshots were shared nearly 60 million times on social media. Last year, downloads of Spotify's mobile app increased by 21% the week the campaign launched.

Michael Ribero, head of subscriptions at Washington Post, shared that the Post wanted to rely on Newsprint to "attract new subscribers and increase brand awareness through social media sharing" in the years to come.

If you're a Washington Post subscriber, there's no need to wait for an email to get your reading summary. You can generate your personalized Newsprint summary here.

Editor's note

This text is not a word-for-word translation of the original article published on the Nieman Lab website. We have added contextual elements, adapted certain expressions, and removed certain passages containing detailed references intended for English-speaking or American readers. We have also chosen to apply inclusive writing conventions to this translation, in accordance with the editorial guidelines that apply to all Médianes content.

Learn more

On the French side, Basta! also created a Spotify-style year-end retrospective to wrap up the year. Available only on social media, it's not personalized and simply highlights the most-read articles and journalists of 2022 in aggregate using Spotify's design. A clever nod that also helps promote the outlet's fundraising campaign to do even better in 2023.

On a lighter note, we also love the feminist media parody Boldie on Instagram. This year, apparently we spent 150,000 minutes ignoring the red flags of our crush.