Washington Post's Gets Aggressive On Technology With Bezos' Backing

Shailesh Prakash, the Washington Post Chief Information Officer charged with leading tech and product development at Jeff Bezos' turnaround media company, gave an interview to TheMediaBriefing last week.

With Bezos' backing, Prakash has expanded his team and opened "WPNYC," a software development lab in New York. Prakash meets bi-weekly with Bezos and oversees his team on projects ranging from personalization to video, mobile, and new ad integrations. He revealed how WaPo approaches new technologies:

"Often it's quite hard to work out what is a fad and what is here to stay. It's very easy to predict the future, but it's very difficult to predict when that future will arrive. Some will take hold and others will take years and years. You'll have spent money without any return."

"I don't think there is anyway other than to be completely open to continuously experiment. There isn't a science to it. It's much more about art."

Curious to learn more about the plans to transform Washingtonpost.com? You'll have a chance to hear Prakash speak at IGNITION 2014, Business Insider's immersive tour of the digital future. Join us at the TimesCenter in New York for three days of deep dives, extended conversations, and awesome networking with a blue-chip roster of speakers including Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, Accel Partners' Jim Breyer, athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, Whisper CEO Michael Heyward, Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer, Gilt chairman Kevin Ryan, former Apple CEO John Sculley, and Union Square Ventures Fred Wilson.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.