Washington Post opinions editor David Shipley on gearing up for the US election

The US voters will head to the polls on 5 November. An area of focus you can expect from The Washington Post in the run-up to the big day is qualified comment and opinion.

Opinions editor David Shipley sat down with Journalism.co.uk to discuss the role of columnists, commentators and opinion writers in election season.

Shipley oversees Post Opinions, all the comment content from high profile writers in new opinion series, engaged audiences in the form of letters to the editor, and even former US president Joe Biden.

On what makes good opinion content worth featuring: People do not pay for weather updates or everyday opinion, they pay for reported opinions like that of foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius. This is an opinion backed up by hard and factual reporting interpreted by "an intellectual frame or argument".

Extra assets are helpful to qualify opinions: charts, data sets, maps, images, and so on.

On the purpose of opinion content: To provide a wide range of perspectives, accepting that there may not be a perfect balance every day, but it evens out over the weeks and months.

Opinion writers ideally use the same information to arrive at different conclusions, and can condense that down for readers, or engage with each other. In election season, for instance, this provides a suitable contrast and complements factual news reporting.

Opinion newsletters (offered by topic and by writer) and the Impromptu podcast (putting columnists in conversation with each other, often to disagreement), attempt to broaden the diversity of views on offer.

Washington Post columnists' newsletters

"We will showcase those views by putting two people who have diametrically opposed views together in conversation," says Shipley. "But we will also try to make that conversation constructive so that we'll model the way in which people can communicate across differences."

On new opinion series: Post Opinions has a brand new series "Who Is Government?" spotlighting an underappreciated role in the US government by a roster of high-profile writers, including Michael Lewis, Casey Cep and Dave Eggers.

With the US election approaching fast, readers receive insight into the inner workings of the government before they vote this autumn and a nagging question about what sort of society and structures of government readers want. "You'll be the judge here," explains Shipley.

Do readers want 12,000 words on longwall mining, though?

"You can only assign the stuff that you want to read. At a certain point, you have to trust your instincts as an editor," defends Shipley. Readers have responded positively and short-form video projects may follow, breaking up big chunks of content for audiences.

On whether the world needs more opinions: The digital space is a noisy environment at the best of times, let alone a month before an election. And The Post recognises this by reducing its output of opinion content to commission pieces more effectively.

Less can be more, as Shipley credits David Hoffman's Pulitzer Prize-winning opinion piece to the slower pace of its output and taking more time with content.

Discoverability is also important - publishing too much content can bury other pieces before readers have a chance to catch up.

A noisy digital environment is fuelling the tried-and-trusted format of letters to the editor.

"You want to maintain some ungovernable spaces where you want to be surprised by the offence that comes in," he says. "Letters are giving us an opportunity to do that."

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