As a blogger, one of the most important tools I have is my RSS feed reader. It allows me to keep track of headlines in order to find important and interesting stories for commentary. Every major newspaper and media outlet now uses RSS feeds to publish links back to their websites, and even some non-major media organizations use RSS.

That makes the case of the Washington Post so curious. They are arguably the most influential newspaper in the US, and certainly one of the most successful. However, they do a very poor job of maintaining their RSS feeds. The only feed that has been updated since Monday are their editorial feeds. The latest update on their national, international, and political news feeds are dated 3/17. I double-checked it by loading the RSS output into my browser, but no new entries have been published since then.

I find the Post an essential news source, especially for inside-the-Beltway news. However, if the Post doesn’t care to update its feeds, it may find itself as relevant as the New York Times’ columnists during the TimesSelect subscription service period.

Update: Lawhawk sends this clip:

Well, at least their RSS feeds are dying ….