Page load speed is important – possibly more so than ever, thanks to the dominance of mobile devices for browsing the web.
As of July 2015, [load time] was cut down to 1.7 seconds — an 85 percent improvement gained by shedding bulky features that took too long to load. With the progressive web app, article pages load in 80 milliseconds, Merrell said.
Source: “With lessons from Google, The Washington Post has brought its page load speed down to milliseconds” (Poynter)
Page load speed seems to be one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization currently. With the amount of competition in the blogosphere, Washington Post has done what’s best for themselves.