Washington Post Spins Off Polling Arm

The publisher of the Washington Post newspaper has spun off its polling operation as a separate company called Capital Insight, which will offer polling and qual/quant research services to external clients while continuing to conduct studies for the paper.

The new firm will design, implement and analyze survey research, and offer a variety of products and services such as custom research, strategic polls and end-to-end survey consulting services.

While Capital Insight will continue to conduct all The Post's polling, it will be independent from the paper's newsroom and advertising departments.

Jon Cohen (pictured), who has been The Post's Polling Director and Polling Editor since 2006, will be in charge of the group. During his time with the newspaper, Cohen created its polling blog 'Behind the Numbers', analyzed exit poll numbers, and led the paper's election night operation. Before joining, he was Assistant Polling Director at ABC News in New York and Associate Survey Director at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco.

Commenting on the launch, Cohen said: 'When we moved the polling department out of The Post's newsroom and into Research & Analytics two years ago, we expanded our focus on political and sociological topics to market research surveys and analyses of business opportunities. Now with the launch of Capital Insight, we're able to offer our high-quality, independent services more broadly. The creation of Capital Insight allows us to maintain the longstanding integrity of Washington Post polls, while simultaneously creating new business opportunities.'

Web sites: www.washingtonpostmedia.com and www.capinsight.com .