Katharine Zaleski shares her “easy escape routes,” including rock climbing in Alexandria and dining near Logan Circle.
Photo by Tony Powell.
Katharine Zaleski is Executive Producer and Head of Digital News Products at the Washington Post, as well as Rock Climbing Enthusiast.
“My fiancé, Rufus Lusk, and I moved to Washington from New York City about a year ago so I could join The Washington Post after being at The Huffington Post since it launched in May, 2005. I work with an amazing team that aims to get more people to read the Post’s content on its web site, phones, tablets and in social media, a challenge I’m glad to say is becoming easier because we had our highest online audience in 2010 since launching the website in the ’90s. We also had the most people tweeting and posting our content on Facebook, watching our videos and engaging with our stories. It’s great to know people are reading quality – original – content with increasing fervor.
My job would be very difficult if we didn’t have a team of incredible reporters, producers, web designers, videographers and editors coming together every day to put forth the best – and most widely read – news that’s for and about Washington. Say what you will about the state of journalism, but I look at our audience numbers and I know where the crowds of readers are heading.
When you’re obsessed with bringing millions of people to a major website every day, it’s nice to know you can run for the hills where Blackberries, iPad apps, Twitter lists, Facebook fan pages and anything else requiring an Internet connection doesn’t work.
Rufus and I love to go rock climbing at Seneca Rocks in West Virginia. On weekdays we head over to Sport Rock in Alexandria and when it gets warmer we go to Carder Rock and Great Falls, some of the best climbing you can get to in an afternoon.
I love the countryside, but there are places I like to escape to within city limits as well, especially St. Ex, Thai Crossing (the location of my team’s holiday dinner), The Passenger and the bar at the Jefferson Hotel (because it’s close to my office and actually serves food that is as good as the drinks). Whether I’m in a no wireless zone or surrounded by mobile devices at a restaurant in Logan Circle, there’s one reason why I really prefer Washington over New York: better escape routes! “
