Bringing in Brand

The question then is, when and why label any journalistic activity as playful, gamelike, or fun? Jeremy Gilbert indicated that audiences have very different expectations for the types of games different game developers make. Those expectations change more when a game comes from a journalistic institution like the Post or Wall Street Journal. He added, “I think there may be suspicion about the authenticity of a gaming experience that comes from a non-gaming company.” For most entrenched news organizations, using games is perceived, whether rightly or wrongly, as having an adverse effect on the brand.

However, for certain journalistic organizations, the appropriation of games and play is considered a benefit rather than a detriment. Raja indicated how a fun attitude actually worked well with the Mother Jones brand from an historical perspective. “We just have the benefit of the fact that Mother Jones has always had a punchy, highly conversational, very voice-y, voice.” She added, “This type of storytelling is sort of in the DNA of Mother Jones.” For other, less journalistically oriented organizations, play and fun are overt assets. Staff at BuzzFeed and Reddit take pride in their websites’ ability to entertain.

Play and games are viewed as a way to supplement the brand, enticing new audience members who otherwise might not engage with the products in the first place. Marburger described how the Post recombines and even reproduces different stories in different formats to potentially appeal to different members of a population. “That helps us with tackling new readers and sustaining currents ones,” he said.