TBD

New parents have it easy. They get nine months to decide on the right name for their child. And once they decide on the name, they don’t even have to secure a URL.

Naming our Washington metro news site didn’t take quite that long. But like expectant parents, we heard the question again and again in the months since this operation was announced: What are you going to name it?

We won’t go into the list of names that we almost chose, the names we considered but laughed down or the reasons we rejected them. Let’s just say that RantsInYourPants.com didn’t exactly turn a lot of heads; plus, it’s taken. Our “riff” list covers everything from the dumb to the too clever to the boring and back again. We came very close to securing a name more than once, but each time an obstacle – a divided staff, a greedy domain holder, a trademark problem – blocked the way.

In a mixture of humor and frustration, Editor Erik Wemple began signing his emails, “Editor, TBD.com.”

Before long, we realized Erik had stumbled upon the perfect name for our site. The traditional news culture is that you don’t publish or broadcast a story until all the questions are answered, all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted. The evening newscast or morning newspaper is presented as a finished product, the culmination of a day’s work for the news staff.

But TBD will never be a finished product. On the web, on mobile devices and on our 24-hours cable news channel, we’ll always be in motion: constantly updating, improving and evolving; seeking more details, reaction or community conversation. We’ll be a place you visit to watch the news unfold in real time.

Traditional journalism says you answer the five W’s in a story: Who? What? When? Where? Why? We’ll answer them, but perhaps a couple at a time, with the rest TBD. We’ll be honest with our community about what we know and what we don’t know. We’ll tell you what questions we’re still pursuing and tell you how you can help us find the answers.

Even when the event is over, we hope to be a place where the conversation continues.

TBD fits our mission in another important way: Determination – always an important quality for journalists – is even more crucial for success as a startup business in the competitive field of digital news.

So our name is our commitment to be determined in every respect: determined to report news that’s important to our community; determined to develop a prosperous business model; determined to engage the community in our stories; determined.