The Washington Post, long an innovator in expanding its online presence, has created a popular application on Facebook with some 350,000 downloads, Jim Brady, Executive Editor of the washingtonpost.com tells Beet.TV

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The application (L) is a kind of political badge which members put on their Facebook pages, showing their political leanings from liberal to conservative.

Jim tells me that while there are no links from the application to the newspaper site, nor are there ads at the present time, the application is proving to be an effective way to gain attention on Facebook.

Jim also shared an update on podcasts, videos and live Webcasts at the paper.  In addition to covering political news as live Web events, the Post will do a webcast on the day of the  NFL draft on June 26.

— Andy Plesser