The Washington Post

For more information on The Washington Post, visit Britannica.com.

Type: Public
On the web: http://www.washpostco.com
Employees: 20,000
Employee growth: 5.3%

It might be said this company can teach you something about newspapers. Best known as the publisher of The Washington Post newspaper, The Washington Post Company actually gets the lion's share of its revenue from Kaplan, the company's test preparation and education services division. Washington Post's other media operations include Newsweek, the #2 weekly news magazine (after Time Inc's Time), a portfolio of six TV stations, and the online publishing operations of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. Its Cable One subsidiary provides cable TV service to markets in about 20 states. The Washington Post boasts a circulation of nearly 640,000. The company is controlled by chairman Donald Graham and his family.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2008:
Sales: $4,461.6M
One year growth: 6.7%
Net income: $65.7M
Income growth: (77.2%)

Officers:
Chairman and CEO: Donald E. (Don) Graham
SVP Finance and CFO: Hal S. Jones
SVP; Publisher of Express and WhoRunsGov.com: Christopher Ma

Competitors:
Laureate Education
New York Times
Time Inc.

Incorporated: 1889
SIC: 2711 Newspapers; 2721 Periodicals; 4833 Television Broadcasting Stations; 4841 Cable & Other Pay Television Services

The Washington Post Company and its subsidiaries are leaders in the news and communications media industry. The Washington Post has been a nationally respected and influential newspaper published daily to serve Washington, D.C., and the adjacent suburban area for over 120 years, and has consistently contributed a large share of the company's revenue. The company also published the politically-oriented Washington Post National Weekly Edition, a daily newspaper in Everett, Washington, and the increasingly popular Newsweek magazine. Other subsidiaries included six television stations, cable television systems in 16 states serving over 600,000 households, educational centers to prepare students for standardized college-admission tests and other professional exams, and an online legislative-information service. Through its ownership of all the company's class A common stock, the Graham family has maintained effective control over the company.

The Washington Post was first published on December 6, 1877, by Stilson Hutchins. Hutchins had come to the nation's capital from St. Louis, Missouri, where he had been associated with several newspapers. His goal in starting the Post was to establish a newspaper at the center of national affairs reflecting the views of the Democratic Party. At this time, the era of Reconstruction had just ended with the controversial presidential election of Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, over Samuel Tilden, a Democrat, by a special congressionally-appointed electoral commission. Hutchins did not approve of Hayes's victory and his paper rarely referred to the man as "president." Within a year, the Post's circulation had reached more than 6,000 copies a day. The first Sunday edition was published on May 2, 1880, making it the first seven-day paper in Washington. By the late 1880s, Hutchins gave up his editorial allegiance to the Democrats and began to describe his paper as "independent." By 1888 Hutchins had bought out the Post's only competitor (the Republican National) and, for a short time, published the Evening Post, an afternoon edition. The paper made a profit for most of its early existence, but Hutchins soon sold it to pursue other interests.

The paper was purchased in 1889 for $210,000 by Frank Hatton and Beriah Wilkins, $30,000 of which was raised by selling a press back to Hutchins. Hatton, who had a background in journalism, took care of the production of the paper, while Wilkins, who had served three terms in the House of Representatives, handled business matters. They incorporated their newspaper company as The Washington Post Company and the same year, at the request of the newspaper's new owners, noted bandleader John Philip Sousa wrote "The Washington Post March" to be played at the awards ceremony for winners in a Post essay contest. For the next several years, the company flourished under the guidance of Hatton and Wilkins, with profits averaging $100,000 a year between 1892 and 1894. Circulation was reported at about 16,000 daily and 20,000 on Sundays.

In 1903, however, with Hatton dead and Wilkins seriously ill, the paper was again for sale. Wilkins died before a sale could be made, but his son made a deal with John R. McLean, owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer, with McLean obtaining a minority share in the paper. By 1905, McLean had secured enough additional shares to place himself in control of the Post.

McLean adopted the style of journalism that had been so successful for William Randolph Hearst. He added sections to the Post for feature stories, comic strips, and sports. He gave less emphasis to political news, which had been the paper's specialty. From 1905 to 1909, Sunday circulation was as high as 40,000, the best in the city, but daily circulation, while it averaged 30,000, began to decline. When McLean died in 1916, his son Edward McLean took over operations. The first years of the younger McLean's tenure were prosperous, with the Post's Sunday circulation reaching 75,000, placing it second to the Washington Star, and profits reached a peak of $376,612 from 1921 to 1923. Edward McLean, however, became ensnared in the Teapot Dome scandal that rocked the presidency of Warren G. Harding during the early 1920s. At the center of the scandal was U.S. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, who had taken bribes to secretly lease oil-rich government lands without taking competitive bids. McLean became less able to handle the company's business affairs, and the editorial quality of the Post declined. From 1924 to 1932, the paper had only two profitable years. In 1933 it went through bankruptcy proceedings and was eventually sold for $825,000 at an auction held on June 1, 1933.

Eugene Meyer, a New York investment banker, was the new owner of the Post. With a sizeable fortune in investment banking, Meyer was willing to spend his money to make the Post both a quality newspaper and a profitable one. His task would not be easy, as circulation had fallen to about 50,000. He quickly began hiring a new staff of reporters and editors, and went to court to prevent several comic strips from being transferred to the Washington Herald. This was a period of great upheaval in Washington, as the New Deal policies of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt were being implemented to pull the U.S. out of the Depression. One such aspect of the New Deal was the creation of the National Recovery Administration, which was supposed to spur industrial recovery and create jobs. Although Meyer was a staunch Republican, he did place the Blue Eagle, symbolic of the National Recovery Administration, on his paper. The paper was not as supportive, however, of other New Deal programs--particularly the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which funded construction of buildings, bridges, and roads to fight unemployment.

The New Deal period also saw one of the Post's most comical typographical errors. At a time when Roosevelt was suffering from a cold, a Post headline read, "FDR in Bed with Coed." The president called the paper to ask for 100 copies of the first edition, but the error had been caught and copies of the issue had already been pulled from circulation. By 1938 circulation had climbed to 100,000 and its advertising volume was the second-highest in Washington. This performance was still well below that of the Star, the only profitable newspaper in the capital during the Great Depression. Annual losses at the Post were about $1 million from 1934 to 1937. Business improved during World War II, with profits for 1942 to 1945 totaling $249,451.

Eugene Meyer relinquished daily control of the Post in 1946 when President Harry S. Truman appointed him first president of the World Bank. Control of the paper stayed in the family, however, as Meyer transferred his voting stock to his daughter, Katharine Graham, and her husband, Philip Graham, on July 23, 1948. Philip Graham had already been installed as publisher of the paper, and the majority of the voting stock, 3,500 shares, was transferred to him, compared to 1,500 shares for Katharine. Under a modified incorporation of the company, the shares were put in a trust controlled by a five-member committee. The committee was authorized to decide on any future changes in the ownership of the voting stock in order to ensure that the company remained true to certain editorial standards (the committee remained in place until shares of the Washington Post Company were first offered to the public in 1971).

When Graham became publisher of the paper he began instituting managerial changes. Within two years he had hired a new managing editor, business manager, and circulation manager. Following the lead of Meyer, who in 1944 had purchased a radio station, Graham acquired a radio station and a television station in Washington in 1949. In 1953 he bought another TV station in Jacksonville, Florida. The next year, 1954, The Washington Post Company made its most important corporate acquisition. After a period of negotiation, Meyer, who still acted as the company's chairman of the board, agreed to buy the Washington Times-Herald for $8.5 million. With the removal of the Times-Herald as a competitor, the Post was assured of a monopoly as Washington's only morning newspaper. The operations of the two papers were combined very quickly to counter any antitrust action the government might undertake, but no such action was pursued. Within four months, the combined papers had a daily circulation of 381,417 and 393,680 Sunday, and ranked as the ninth-largest morning paper in the country.

In March 1961, Philip Graham made another monumental acquisition--purchasing Newsweek, the general newsmagazine--from its stockholders for $15 million. Newsweek soon became an integral part of the company's operations. The following year Graham exhibited further foresight by forming a national news wire service in conjunction with the Los Angeles Times which would later serve upwards of 500 subscribers worldwide. In 1963, Philip Graham's tenure and years of manic-depressive illness ended when he took his own life. Upon his death, Katharine Meyer Graham took the reins of the company as president, to the chagrin of many who doubted her abilities to run the Washington Post Company in a man's world. She not only proved herself as more than up to the job--eventually earning the nickname of "the Iron Lady"--but basked in the glow of transforming the Post from a successful operation into a phenomenally profitable newspaper that put journalism first, whatever the price. Though she originally kept the same management team put in place by her husband, in 1965 Katharine ushered in a new era at the Post with the appointment of Benjamin Bradlee as managing editor.

In 1966 Graham continued her husband's acquisition program by buying a 45 percent interest in the Paris edition of the New York Herald-Tribune. The next year, through a partnership with the New York Times, The Washington Post Company began to publish the Paris paper as the International Herald Tribune. The end of the decade found Philip's last major acquisition, Newsweek, prospering, having exceeded the domestic advertising pages of its nearest rival, Time. Bradlee had also begun to make his mark on the Post, including the introduction of the "Style" section in 1969 as a way of combining all cultural news in one place. Bradlee was also to play a pivotal role in the two big stories of the 1970s that earned the Post its widest acclaim as an important national newspaper.

The first of these stories involved the publication of the Pentagon Papers. On June 13, 1971, the New York Times began to publish this secret, government version of the history of the Vietnam War in serial form, but within three days the administration of President Richard M. Nixon had secured an injunction forcing the Times to cease publication of the documents. A few days later, the Post secured a copy of the papers; in a meeting at Bradlee's home, reporters prepared the Post's version of the Pentagon Papers for publication. Lawyers for the paper advised against publishing any story. The Post Company was in the process of going public; the stock had been issued but not yet sold. An indictment for criminal liability could easily place the transaction in jeopardy, threatening the very foundation of the company. Bradlee argued strongly in favor of publication and Katharine Graham made the final decision to publish. The government soon filed suit against the Post and the cases against both the Times and the Post were argued jointly. On July 1, 1971, the Supreme Court decided in favor of the newspapers by a six-to-three vote.

Soon after its success with the Pentagon Papers, the Post scored another major reporting coup with its handling of the Watergate affair. On June 27, 1972, there was a burglary at the Democratic Party headquarters in Washington. Because of its location, the Post was better equipped to go after the Watergate story than other newspapers. Two reporters specializing in the Washington city beat, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, were assigned to the story, and with the help of several government officials, uncovered the link between the Watergate burglary and the Nixon Administration. Nixon and his aides retaliated by having Administration supporters challenge the broadcasting licenses of the company's Florida TV stations before the Federal Communications Commission. The company prevailed, though its share price suffered a decline during the Watergate period. Yet the Post's reporting ultimately led to Nixon's resignation as president and in 1973 the paper was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for public service for its coverage of the Watergate affair.

While the Watergate and Pentagon Papers stories propelled the Post into the national limelight, several changes took place on the business side of the company. In 1971 the Washington Post Company completed its IPO of more than 1.35 million shares of Class B stock for $33 million. All of the Class A stock stayed within the Graham family; a capitalization that gave the Grahams a majority of the vote and the right to elect 70 percent of the directors, with Class B stockholders electing the remainder. In that same year the company also organized the Washington Post Writers Group to syndicate material produced by its staff writers, and moved into a new $25 million building in downtown Washington. It also purchased the Trenton Times, of Trenton, New Jersey, which proved to be a modestly successful operation.

By 1973, the Post had achieved the number-one position in Washington, accounting for 65.8 percent of advertising space, 56.6 percent of daily circulation, and 67.1 percent of Sunday circulation. The only other newspaper remaining to compete with it was the Star. The Post also encountered labor difficulties in the 1970s, facing strikes by its printers in 1973, by reporters and other members of the Newspaper Guild in 1974, and an especially brutal strike by the pressmen in 1975. Nevertheless, growth continued and the paper was able to emerge from all three strikes in a stronger position than before. The company, meanwhile, continued its media buying trend, acquiring TV stations (Miami in 1969, and Hartford in 1974). The Washington radio station purchased in 1949 was disposed of through the donation of its FM operations to Howard University in 1971 and the sale of its AM facility in 1977. In 1978, the company traded its TV station in Washington for a station in Detroit.

During the heady 1970s, Donald Graham, son of Katharine and Philip, had begun working at the Post. By 1976 he had moved up the ranks to become general manager and in '79 he took charge of the paper as its publisher, with Katharine remaining in overall charge as chairman of the company. Meanwhile, Newsweek's annual profits for 1977 were almost triple the price Philip Graham had paid in 1961; a year later, the company purchased the Herald, a daily newspaper located north of Seattle, in Everett, Washington.

The Post received a big boost in 1981 with the closing down of its last remaining competitor, the Star; circulation increased from 595,000 to 730,000 daily, and from 827,000 to 952,000 on Sundays. However, additional competition emerged in 1982 with the establishment of a new paper, the Washington Times, and further competition came from specialized suburban newspapers. Nevertheless, the company finished the year with solid operating revenues of $877.7 million and net income of $68.4 million. In 1983 came the launch of the Washington Post Weekly, a government-oriented paper specializing in politics, economics, and diplomatic matters; the following year, the Post was redesigned from top to bottom, for the first time in 50 years.

By 1988 when hostile takeover bids were becoming common in the corporate world and especially among newspapers, the Graham family took steps to protect its ownership of the Post. Because lawsuits at other newspapers had challenged the system of having two classes of stock by arguing that all stockholders should be entitled to vote on a merger plan, the charter of the Post was changed to make a majority vote of both classes of stock necessary to approve a merger. This year also marked a zenith for profit, when net income soared to $269.1 million on operating revenues of $1.37 billion and stock earnings leaping to $20.91 per share. The company's jubilation was somewhat short-lived, however, for both revenue and income began a downward trend after a modest increase in 1989, a year in which the company began the first of several ambitious stock repurchasing plans as both a good investment and to ward off potential takeovers. Newsweek, though, continued to shine brightly by achieving a subscriber base of 3 million and an estimated readership of nearly 20 million.

With the dawn of the 1990s, the company's growth slowed for the first time in years, and operating revenues and net income fell. Though revenues slipped just over $5.4 million, income plummeted by $23.3 million. Was this a chance occurrence due to a culmination of circumstance or the beginning of a trend? Post-watchers had seen their urban newspaper weather many a blight and survive when other newspapers had folded. Just four years earlier, in 1986, the 15 largest newspapers in the United States accounted for 21 percent of all newspapers sold. Along with this trend, however, came a decline in urban population and a sales drop for daily metropolitan newspapers. The Post, as a survivor, benefited from the elimination of its major competitors yet soon faced another difficulty with the emergence of more news-related television (especially 24-hour cable news services). Yet it was helped by the ever-growing population of the Washington metro area and capitalized on this boom by offering special sections geared to readers in suburban Maryland and Virginia, and the company purchased land to build additional production facilities nearer to its suburban readers.

In 1991 Donald Graham was named CEO of the company in addition to his responsibilities as the Post's publisher. Katharine remained chairman of the board. Two years later, in 1993, Katharine was named chairman of the executive committee, while Donald became the company's chairman of the board. Another major transition was the retirement of Ben Bradlee, the Post's charismatic guiding force. Replaced by Leonard Downie, the paper seemed to stumble and lose its edge while the Washington Times quickly filled the gap. Yet after a few years of dismal earnings (1991's $70.8 million, 1992's $127.8 million) managed a comeback to 1993's $165.4 million in net income on revenues of nearly $1.50 billion.

For 1994 and 1995, revenue continued to climb with $1.61 billion and $1.71 billion, respectively, and income corresponded with a modest step in 1994 to $170 million and a grander hike to $190 million in 1995. The latter year also marked the purchase of eight new top-of-the-line offset presses and groundbreaking on a new printing facility in College Park, Maryland. The new plant, which was to be operational by 1998, was designated along with another in Springfield, Virginia, to take over all printing for the region and replace two older facilities in the D.C. area. Circulation for the Post in 1995 had reached 834,641 for its daily paper (about 60 percent of the area's total circulation), and 1.14 million for its Sunday edition.

In 1996 the company continued to broaden its communications empire with the purchase of Columbus Television Cable Corp. of Mississippi, and Rural Missouri Cable T.V. of Branson, Missouri. Over at the magazine division, trouble brewed with the "anonymous" publication of a Clinton presidential satire called Primary Colors, whose author turned out to be Newsweek columnist Joe Klein. The furor and controversy over Klein's identity and refusal to come forward led to his resignation from the magazine. In addition, two big names were added to the company's Board of Directors--Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (which owned nearly 19 percent or over 1.7 million shares of the Post Company's Class B shares) and Daniel Burke, retired CEO and president of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. Operating revenues for the year hit a healthy $1.85 billion and net income soared to nearly $221 million, climbing over $100 million for the first time since 1988's spectacular $269.1 million.

The following year Katharine Graham was once again in the limelight with the publication of Personal History, a 642-page memoir detailing her rocky ride as the Iron Lady of the Washington Post Company. Candid about the effects of her husband's suicide, emerging from his and her father's imposing shadows, and mistakes in the early years trying to please everyone, Graham chronicled her journey from shaky newcomer to steely matriarch of one of the world's most respected newspapers.

In 1997 the company diversified further into communications by producing a weekly news magazine show with Maryland Public Television called Healthweek, to be anchored by CBS's Sharyl Attkinsson on PBS. As the Washington Post Company forged ahead into more TV and cable systems, the broadcast division's profits overtook those of the print media. The Post, once the dominant force behind the company in sales and earnings, accounted for only a third of operating income beaten by the broadcast division's 44 percent--a whopping figure given its 18 percent figure in revenue. Yet no matter how large the company's broadcast media became, the newspaper bearing its name would always represent the company. With 11 local news bureaus around D.C., five national (Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York) and 20 international bureaus, the Post's professional edge was second to none--a feat Stilson Hutchins never imagined when he founded his politically-based newspaper in 1877.

Principal Subsidiaries

The Washington Post; The Washington Post National Weekly Edition; The Herald; Robinson Terminal Warehouse Corporation; Capitol Fiber, Inc.; the Gazette Newspapers, Inc.; Post-Newsweek Broadcast Division--WDIV-TV; KPRC-TV; WPLG-TV; WFSB-TV; KSAT-TV; WJXT-TV; Post Newsweek Cable; Newsweek International; Newsweek Japan; Newsweek Korea; Itogi; Newsweek en Espanol; Kaplan Educational Centers; Legi-Slate, Inc.; Moffet, Larson & Johnson, Inc.; PASS Sports; Digital Ink Co.; TechNews, Inc.

Further Reading

Graham, Katharine, Personal History, New York, Knopf, 1997.

Roberts, Chalmers M., In the Shadow of Power: The Story of The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Seven Locks Press, 1989.

— Donald R. Stabile; Updated by Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf

This article is about the newspaper. For the John Phillip Sousa march, see The Washington Post (march).

The Washington Post

Front page for Sunday, October 25, 2009.
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	Washington Post Company
Publisher	Katharine Weymouth
Editor	Marcus Brauchli
Founded	1877
Headquarters	1150 15th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C., United States
Circulation	673,180 Daily 890,163 Sunday[1]
ISSN	0190-8286
Official website	washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Washington, D.C. and is the city's oldest paper, founded in 1877. Being located in the nation's capital, it has a particular emphasis on national politics and international affairs. It is a newspaper of record^[2] and a regional paper; D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation.

The newspaper is written as a broadsheet, with photographs printed both in color as well as in black and white. Weekday printings include the main section, containing the first page, national, international news, business, politics, and editorials and opinions, followed by the sections on local news (Metro), sports, style (feature writing on pop culture, politics, fine and performing arts, film, fashion, and gossip), and classifieds. The Sunday edition includes the weekday sections as well as several weekly sections: Outlook (opinion and editorials), Style & Arts, Travel, Comics, TV Week, and the Washington Post Magazine. Beyond the newspaper, the Washington Post under its parent company of The Washington Post Company is involved with the Washington Post Media, Washington Post Digital and washingtonpost.com.

In 1889, John Phillip Sousa composed on behalf of the newspaper "The Washington Post March", which later became one of the most famous march music pieces. Perhaps the most notable incident in the Post's history was when, in the early 1970s, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein began the media's investigation of Watergate. This contributed greatly to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. In later years, its investigative reporting has led to increased review of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.^[3]

Since Leonard Downie, Jr. was named executive editor in 1991, the Post has won 25 Pulitzer Prizes, more than half of the paper's total collection of 47 Pulitzers awarded. This includes six separate Pulitzers given in 2008, the second-highest record of Pulitzers ever given to a single newspaper in one year.^[4] The Post has also received 18 Nieman Fellowships, and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards, among others.

Contents 1 General overview 2 Political stance 3 Notable contributors (past and present) 4 Executive officers and editors (past and present) 5 Honors and achievements 6 References 7 External links

General overview

The Post is generally regarded among the leading daily American newspapers, along with The New York Times, which is known for its general reporting and international coverage, and The Wall Street Journal, which is known for its financial reporting. The Post has distinguished itself through its political reporting on the workings of the White House, Congress, and other aspects of the U.S. government.

Unlike the Times and the Journal, however, it does not print a daily national edition for distribution away from the East Coast—although a "National Weekly Edition" combines stories from a week of Post editions.^[5] The majority of its newsprint readership is in the District of Columbia, as well as its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia.^[6]

As of June 2009^[update], its average weekday circulation was 665,383, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, making it the fifth largest newspaper in the country by circulation, behind USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. While its circulation (like that of almost all newspapers) has been slipping, it has one of the highest market-penetration rates of any metropolitan news daily.

The paper was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins and in 1880 added a Sunday edition, thus becoming the city's first newspaper to publish seven days a week. In 1889, Hutchins sold the paper to Frank Hatton, a former Postmaster General, and Beriah Wilkins, a former Democratic congressman from Ohio. To promote the paper, the new owners requested the leader of the Marine Band, John Philip Sousa, to compose a march for the newspaper's essay contest awards ceremony. Sousa composed The Washington Post, which remains one of his best-known works. In 1899, during the Spanish–American War, the Post printed Clifford K. Berryman's classic illustration Remember the Maine.

Wilkins acquired Hatton's share of the paper in 1894 at Hatton's death. After Wilkins' death in 1903, his sons John and Robert ran the Post for two years before selling it in 1905 to Washington McLean and his son John Roll McLean, owners of the Cincinnati Enquirer. During the Wilson presidency, the Post was credited with having made the most famous newspaper typo in D.C. history according to Reason Magazine; the Post tried to report that President Wilson had been entertaining his future-wife Mrs. Galt, but instead wrote, erroneously, that he had been entering Mrs. Galt.^[7][8] When John McLean died in 1916, he put the paper in trust, having little faith that his playboy son Edward "Ned" McLean could manage his inheritance. Ned went to court and broke the trust, but, under his management, the paper slumped toward ruin. It was purchased in a bankruptcy auction in 1933 by a member of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, Eugene Meyer, who restored the paper's health and reputation. In 1946, Meyer was succeeded as publisher by his son-in-law Philip Graham.

In 1954, the Post consolidated its position by acquiring and merging with its last morning rival, the Washington Times-Herald. (The combined paper would officially be named The Washington Post and Times-Herald until 1973, although the Times-Herald portion of the masthead became less and less prominent after the 1950s.) The merger left the Post with two remaining local competitors, the afternoon Washington Star (Evening Star) and The Washington Daily News, which merged in 1972 and folded in 1981. The Washington Times, established in 1982, has been a local rival with a circulation (as of 2005^[update]) about one-seventh that of the Post.^[9]

After Graham's suicide in 1963, control of the Washington Post Company passed to Katharine Graham, his wife and Meyer's daughter. No woman before had ever run a nationally prominent newspaper in the United States. She described her own anxiety and lack of confidence based on her gender in her autobiography, and she did not assign duties to her daughter at the paper as she did to her son. She served as publisher from 1969 to 1979 and headed the Washington Post Company into the early 1990s as chairman of the board and CEO. After 1993, she retained a position as chairman of the executive committee until her death in 2001.

Her tenure is credited with seeing the Post rise in national stature through effective investigative reporting, most notably to ensure that The New York Times did not surpass its Washington reporting of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandal. Executive editor Ben Bradlee put the paper's reputation and resources behind reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who, in a long series of articles, chipped away at the story behind the 1972 burglary of Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Hotel complex in Washington. The Post's dogged coverage of the story, the outcome of which ultimately played a major role in the resignation of President Richard Nixon, won the paper a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

In 1972, the "Book World" section was introduced.^[10] It featured Pulitzer Prize winning critics such as Jonathan Yardley and Michael Dirda, the later established his career as a critic at the Post. In 2009, after 37 years, "Book World" as a standalone insert was discontinued, the last issue being Sunday, February 15, 2009.^[11] However book reviews were still being published in the Outlook section on Sundays, and in the Style section the rest of the week, as well as some reviews posted online.^[11]

In 1980, the Post published a dramatic story called "Jimmy's World",^[12] describing the life of an eight-year-old heroin addict in Washington, for which reporter Janet Cooke won acclaim and a Pulitzer Prize. Subsequent investigation, however, revealed the story to be a fabrication. The Pulitzer Prize was returned.

Donald Graham, Katharine's son, succeeded her as publisher in 1979 and in the early 1990s became chief executive officer and chairman of the board, as well. He was succeeded in 2000 as publisher and CEO by Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr., with Graham remaining as chairman. In February 2008, Jones was named chairman of the newspaper, and Katharine Weymouth became publisher of The Washington Post and chief executive officer of Washington Post Media, a new unit that includes The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com.

Like The New York Times, the Post was slow in moving to color photographs and features. On January 28, 1999, its first color front-page photograph appeared. After that, color slowly integrated itself into other photographs and advertising throughout the paper.

In 1996, the newspaper established a web site, http://www.washingtonpost.com/.

The paper is part of The Washington Post Company, a diversified education and media company that also owns educational services provider Kaplan, Inc., Post-Newsweek Stations, Cable One, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, Newsweek magazine, the online magazine Slate, The Gazette and Southern Maryland Newspapers, The Herald (Everett, WA) and CourseAdvisor.

The paper runs its own syndication service for its columnists and cartoonists, The Washington Post Writers Group.

The Post has its main office at 1150 15th St, N.W., and the newspaper has the exclusive zip code 20071.

On July 7, 2008, it was announced that former Wall Street Journal editor Marcus Brauchli would become the paper's top editor, succeeding Leonard Downie, Jr. in September.^[13]

On January 29, 2009, the Post announced that it was dropping Book World as a separate Sunday section and moving its coverage to the Outlook and Style sections. Deputy editor Rachel Hartigan Shea was named the new Book World editor, replacing Marie Arana, who stepped down on December 31, 2008 after accepting an early retirement offer earlier that year.^[14]

Political stance

This article or section may be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective. (June 2009)

Beginning with Richard Nixon,^[15] conservatives have often cited the Post, along with The New York Times, as exemplars of "liberal media bias".

Originally due to the perceived left-wing bias in both reporting and editorials,^[16] The Washington Post has been called "Pravda on the Potomac", an allusion to the official newspaper of the Soviet communist party. Since then, the appellation has been used by both liberal and conservative critics of the Post.^[17][18] FBI director J. Edgar Hoover reportedly told President Lyndon B. Johnson, "I don't have much influence with the Post because I frankly don't read it. I view it like the Daily Worker."^[19][20]

As Katharine Graham (the former publisher of the Post) noted in her memoirs Personal History, the paper long had a policy of not making endorsements for presidential candidates. However, since at least 2000, The Washington Post has endorsed presidential candidates.^[21] It also has endorsed Republican politicians, such as Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich.^[22] In 2006, it repeated its historic endorsements of every Republican incumbent for Congress in Northern Virginia.^[23] There have also been times when the Post has specifically chosen not to endorse any candidate, such as in 1988 when it refused to endorse then Governor Michael Dukakis or then Vice President George H.W. Bush.^[24] On October 17, 2008, the Post endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.^[25]

Despite its liberal reputation, the Post's editorial positions on foreign policy and economic issues have seen a definitively conservative bent: it has steadfastly supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, warmed to President George W. Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security, opposed a deadline for U.S. withdrawal from the Iraq War, and advocated free trade agreements, including CAFTA.^{[citation needed]}

In "Buying the War" on PBS, Bill Moyers noted 27 editorials supporting George W. Bush's ambitions to invade Iraq. National security correspondent Walter Pincus reported that he had been ordered to cease his reports that were critical of Republican administrations.^[26]

In 1992, the PBS investigative news program Frontline suggested that the Post had moved to the right in response to its smaller, more conservative rival The Washington Times. The program quoted Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of the conservative activist organization the Moral Majority, as saying "The Washington Post became very arrogant and they just decided that they would determine what was news and what wasn't news and they wouldn't cover a lot of things that went on. And The Washington Times has forced the Post to cover a lot of things that they wouldn't cover if the Times wasn't in existence."^[27] In 2008, Thomas F. Roeser of the Chicago Daily Observer also mentioned competition from the Washington Times as a factor moving the Post to the right.^[28]

On March 26, 2007, Chris Matthews said on his television program, "Well, The Washington Post is not the liberal newspaper it was, Congressman, let me tell you. I have been reading it for years and it is a neocon newspaper".^[29] It has regularly published an ideological mixture of op-ed columnists, some of them on the left (including E.J. Dionne and Eugene Robinson), and some on the right (including George Will, Michael Gerson, and Charles Krauthammer).

In a November 19, 2008 column, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell stated: "I'll bet that most Post journalists voted for Obama. I did. There are centrists at The Post as well. But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don't even want to be quoted by name in a memo".^[30] Responding to criticism of the newspaper's coverage during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, Howell wrote: "The opinion pages have strong conservative voices; the editorial board includes centrists and conservatives; and there were editorials critical of Obama. Yet opinion was still weighted toward Obama. It's not hard to see why conservatives feel disrespected".^[30]

In November 2007, the Post was criticized by independent journalist Robert Parry for reporting on anti-Obama chain e-mails without sufficiently emphasizing to its readers the false nature of the anonymous claims.^[31] In 2009, Parry criticized the Post for its allegedly unfair reporting on liberal politicians, including Vice President Al Gore and President Barack Obama.^[32]

In an June 2009 article on the conservative website newsmax.com, journalist Ronald Kessler reported that "... recent developments at the Washington Post demonstrate that a return to fair coverage attracts readers," and that, "Since Katharine Weymouth became publisher more than a year ago, and she named Marcus Brauchli, a former Wall Street Journal editor, executive editor in September, the paper has been making an honest effort to be fair. Hit jobs against Bush administration programs and Republicans in general have virtually vanished. Instead, the paper presents issues fairly. No longer is the other side suppressed or relegated to the last paragraph."^[33] The Wasington Post also frequently attacked Republican Bob McDonnell during the Virginia gubernatorial election, 2009. The Politico noted the rather unbalanced coverage of the Virginia Governor race, writing that the newspaper was "quickly becoming the biggest ally of Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds, front-paging another story today that portrays Republican Bob McDonnell in a negative light as a rock-ribbed social conservative".^[34]

Notable contributors (past and present)

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)

Joel Achenbach (writer) Anne Applebaum (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Marie Arana (editor of Book World) Cathy Areu (contributing editor, "First Person Singular") Peter Baker (White House reporter) Dan Balz (national political reporter) Rankin Barbee (writer)[35] Carl Bernstein (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Andrew Beyer (horse racing columnist) Herb Block (cartoonist, Pulitzer Prize) Thomas Boswell (sports columnist) David Broder (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Tina Brown (writer) Art Buchwald (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Monty Bush (writer) Ron Charles (book critic) Rajiv Chandrasekaran (editor) Chris Cillizza (writer; author of The Fix weblog) Libby Copeland (writer) Richard L. Coe (theatre critic/writer) Richard Cohen (columnist) Steve Coll (editor, Pulitzer Prize) Janet Cooke (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Lisa de Moraes (television columnist) Ann Devroy (award winning journalist) Helen Dewar (Senate political reporter) E.J. Dionne (columnist) Michael Dirda (book critic, Pulitzer Prize) Leonard Downie, Jr. (editor) Michel duCille (photo editor, photographer, Pulitzer Prize) Bill Elsen (director of recruiting and hiring) David Finkel, (journalist, Pulitzer Prize) Marc Fisher, (writer, editor) Dan Froomkin (columnist) Joel Garreau (writer) Barbara Garson (writer) Philip Geyelin (editorial page editor) Robin Givhan (fashion editor, Pulitzer Prize) Malcolm Gladwell (writer) Meg Greenfield (editor, Pulitzer Prize) Mike Grunwald (writer) Walter Haight (sports writer and columnist) Jim Hoagland (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Stephen Hunter (film critic, Pulitzer Prize)

Robert Kagan (columnist) Glenn Kessler (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Colbert I. King (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Anne Kornblut (writer) Tony Kornheiser (sports columnist) Charles Krauthammer (columnist, Pulitzer Prize) Howard Kurtz (media critic) Charles Lane (writer) Colman McCarthy (columnist) Mary McGrory (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Dana Milbank (writer) Tim Page (music critic, Pulitzer Prize) Philip P. Pan (writer, author) Matthew Parris (columnist) John Pomfret (writer and editor, author) Shirley Povich (sports columnist) Dana Priest (writer, Pulitzer Prize) William Raspberry (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Thomas E. Ricks (military reporter, Pulitzer Prize) Ken Ringle (writer) Eugene Robinson (columnist and editor, Pulitzer Prize) Harry M. Rosenfeld (editor) Christine Sadler (writer and editor) Anthony Shadid (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Tom Shales (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Howard Simons (editor) Leonard Shapiro (sports columnist) Michael Specter (writer) Emil Steiner (writer) Barry Svrluga (sports writer) Patrick Tyler (writer) Tom Toles (cartoonist, Pulitzer Prize) Jim VandeHei (writer) Gene Weingarten (writer, Pulitzer Prize) James Russell Wiggins (editor) Michael Wilbon (sports columnist) Juan Williams (Writer) George F. Will (columnist, Pulitzer Prize) Bob Woodward (writer, Pulitzer Prize) Robin Wright (writer) Jonathan Yardley (book critic, Pulitzer Prize) Steve LeVine (journalist and writer)

The Monday, July 21, 1969 edition stating "'The Eagle Has Landed' Two Men Walk on the Moon."

Executive officers and editors (past and present)

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)

Philip Bennett Benjamin C. Bradlee Marcus Brauchli Milton Coleman Jackson Diehl Leonard Downie, Jr. Donald Graham Katharine Graham

Philip Graham Fred Hiatt Stephen P. Hills Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr. Colbert I. King Eugene Meyer Florence Meyer Katharine Weymouth

Honors and achievements

Main article: List of prizes won by The Washington Post

References

1. ^ Saba, Jennifer (2008-04-28). "New FAS-FAX: Steep Decline at 'NYT' While 'WSJ' Gains". Editor & Publisher. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003795106. 
2. ^ Worden, Nat (November 2, 2006). Learning Curve at Washington Post. RealMoney.com.
3. ^ Reed, Walter. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/walter-reed/index.html. 
4. ^ Kurtz, Howard (2008-04-08). "The Post Wins 6 Pulitzer Prizes". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040701359_2.html?hpid=artslot&sid=ST2008040701372. Retrieved 2008-08-08. 
5. ^ "You don't have to live in Washington to enjoy The Washington Post". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/post/natweekly/. Retrieved 2009-08-30. 
6. ^ "The Washington Post's Circulation and Reach". Washington Post Media. http://www.washingtonpostads.com/adsite/why/media/reach/page1450.html. Retrieved 2009-03-02. 
7. ^ Charles Paul Freund (uly 2001). "D.C. Jewels–The closing of a historic shop is a triumph of meaning over means.". Reason Magazine. http://reason.com/archives/2001/07/01/dc-jewels. Retrieved 2009-11-05. "...Mrs. Edith Galt, who became the second wife of Woodrow Wilson ... She also figures in the most famous newspaper typo in D.C. history according to ... The Washington Post ... Intending to report that Wilson had been entertaining Mrs. Galt in a loge at the National, early editions instead printed that he was seen entering her." 
8. ^ Gene Weingarten‐Washington Post Staff Writer (July 11, 2006). "Chatological Humor* (Updated 7.14.06)". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/06/27/DI2006062700793.html. Retrieved 2009-11-05. "The Post said that the President spent the afternoon "entertaining" Mrs. Galt, but they dropped the "tain" in one edition. Wilson LOVED it." 
9. ^ "Washington Times - Times circulation climbs to buck trend". Washtimes.com. http://www.washtimes.com/business/20050518-120247-7729r.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
10. ^ Book World 25th Anniversary: Views From Publisher's Row, Marie Arana-Ward (then-deputy editor of "Book World"), The Washington Post, June 1, 1997
11. ^ ^{a b} Letter from the editor, The Washington post, Sunday, February 15, 2009; Page BW02
12. ^ "Washington Post Archives: Article". Uncp.edu. 1980-09-28. http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/markport/lit/litjour/spg2002/cooke.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
13. ^ Kurtz, Howard (2008-07-07). "Washington Post Names Marcus Brauchli Executive Editor". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/07/AR2008070701835.html?hpid=topnews. Retrieved 2008-07-07. 
14. ^ Kurtz, Howard (2009-01-29). "Post to End Stand-Alone Book Section". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/28/AR2009012802208.html. Retrieved 2009-01-29. 
15. ^ "Richard Nixon’s Revenge". Amconmag.com. 2005-02-14. http://www.amconmag.com/2005_02_14/buchanan.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
16. ^ Bruce Bartlett, Partisan Press Parity?, The Washington Times, March 13, 2007.
17. ^ James Kirchick, Pravda on the Potomac, The New Republic, February 18, 2009.
18. ^ William Greider, 'Washington Post' Warriors, The Nation, March 6, 2003.
19. ^ Michael Beschloss, Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964, p. 32, Simon & Schuster, 1997, ISBN 0684804077.
20. ^ Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-1965, p. 180, Simon & Schuster, 1999, ISBN 0684848090.
21. ^ "Kerry for President (washingtonpost.com)". washingtonpost.com. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57584-2004Oct23.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
22. ^ "Wrong Choice for Governor - washingtonpost.com". washingtonpost.com<!. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102501668.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
23. ^ "For Congress in Virginia - washingtonpost.com". washingtonpost.com<!. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900552.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
24. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
25. ^ "Barack Obama for President". washingtonpost.com. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603436.html?hpid=opinionsbox1. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
26. ^ "null". Editorandpublisher.com. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003574260. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
27. ^ "Frontline: Reverend Moon". MediaChannel.org. http://www.mediachannel.org/originals/moontranscript.shtml. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
28. ^ How the Liberal Media Stonewalled the Edwards Chicago Daily Observer August 18, 2008
29. ^ 12:27 p.m. ET (2007-03-26). "'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for March 23 - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17798805. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
30. ^ ^{a b} Howell, Deborah: "Remedying the Bias Perception", WashingtonPost.com, November 19, 2008
31. ^ "WPost Buys into Anti-Obama Bigotry". Consortiumnews.com. 2007-11-29. http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/112907.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
32. ^ Framing Obama - by the WPost, Robert Parry, Consortium News, March 19, 2009
33. ^ Kessler, Ronald: Washington Post Has Become a Model for the Media, Newsmax.com, 01 June 2009
34. ^ Kraushaar, Josh (2009-09-29). "The Washington Post v. Bob McDonnell". Politico. http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0909/The_Washington_Post_v_Bob_McDonnell.html. Retrieved 2009-10-20. 
35. ^ "David Rankin Barbee: A biographical sketch". The David Rankin Barbee Papers. Georgetown University Libraries. http://library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/cl145.htm. "In 1928 he came to Washington, D.C. as a feature writer for the Washington Post. His column Profiles earned a large and loyal audience." 

External links

• Official website
• Corporate website
• Timeline of the history of The Washington Post
• Scott Sherman, Columbia Journalism Review, May 2002, "Donald Graham's Washington Post"
• Video Interview with then-Baghdad Bureau Chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran
• Jaffe, Harry. "Post Watch: Family Dynasty Continues with Katharine II", Washingtonian, February 26, 2008.

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