The Washington Post
Democracy Dies in Darkness | |
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border Front page of June 8, 2016 | |
Type | Daily newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet |
Owner(s) | Nash Holdings |
Founder(s) | Stilson Hutchins |
Publisher | Fred Ryan[1] |
Editor | Martin Baron[2] |
Managing editor | Emilio Garcia-Ruiz Cameron Barr Tracy Grant[3] |
Staff writers | Approx. 740 journalists[4] |
Founded | December 6, 1877 |
Language | English |
Headquarters | |
Country | United States |
Circulation |
|
ISSN | 0190-8286 |
OCLC number | 2269358 |
Website | www |
The Washington Post is a major American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., with a particular emphasis on national politics and the federal government. It has the largest circulation in the Washington metropolitan area. Its slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" began appearing on its masthead in 2017.[7] Daily broadsheet editions are printed for the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
The newspaper has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes. This includes six separate Pulitzers awarded in 2008, second only to The New York Times' seven awards in 2002 for the highest number ever awarded to a single newspaper in one year.[8] Post journalists have also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards. In the early 1970s, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press' investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal; reporting in the newspaper greatly contributed to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. In years since, its investigations have led to increased review of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.[9]
In October 2013, the paper's longtime controlling family, the Graham family, sold the newspaper to Nash Holdings, a holding company established by Jeff Bezos, for $250 million in cash.[10][11]
Overview
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Washington_Post_building.jpg/220px-Washington_Post_building.jpg)
The Washington Post is regarded as one of the leading daily American newspapers,[12] along with The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. 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 New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post does not print an edition for distribution away from the East Coast. In 2009, the newspaper ceased publication of its National Weekly Edition, which combined stories from the week's print editions, due to shrinking circulation.[13] The majority of its newsprint readership is in the District of Columbia and its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia.[14]
The newspaper is one of a few U.S. newspapers with foreign bureaus, located in Beirut, Berlin, Beijing, Bogotá, Cairo, Hong Kong, Islamabad, Jerusalem, Kabul, London, Mexico City, Moscow, Nairobi, New Delhi, Paris, and Tokyo.[15] In November 2009, it announced the closure of its U.S. regional bureaus—Chicago, Los Angeles and New York—as part of an increased focus on "...political stories and local news coverage in Washington."[16] The newspaper has local bureaus in Maryland (Annapolis, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, Southern Maryland) and Virginia (Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun County, Richmond, and Prince William County).[17]
As of May 2013[update], its average weekday circulation was 474,767, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, making it the seventh largest newspaper in the country by circulation, behind USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News, and the New York Post. 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.[18]
For many decades, the Post had its main office at 1150 15th Street NW. This real estate remained with Graham Holdings when the newspaper was sold to Jeff Bezos' Nash Holdings in 2013. Graham Holdings sold 1150 15th Street (along with 1515 L Street, 1523 L Street, and land beneath 1100 15th Street) for US$159 million in November 2013. The Washington Post continued to lease space at 1150 L Street NW.[19] In May 2014, The Washington Post leased the west tower of One Franklin Square, a high-rise building at 1301 K Street NW in Washington, D.C. The newspaper moved into their new offices December 14, 2015.[20]
Publishing service
Arc Publishing is a department of the Post, which provides the publishing system, Arc, software for news organizations such as the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.[21]
History
Founding and early period
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Sign%2C_%22Welcome_Home_From_the_Crow-Eaters%2C%22_on_the_front_of_the_Washington_Post_Building_in_Washington%2C_DC._President..._-_NARA_-_199955.jpg/220px-Sign%2C_%22Welcome_Home_From_the_Crow-Eaters%2C%22_on_the_front_of_the_Washington_Post_Building_in_Washington%2C_DC._President..._-_NARA_-_199955.jpg)
The newspaper was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins (1838–1912) and in 1880 added a Sunday edition, becoming the city's first newspaper to publish seven days a week. In 1889, Hutchins sold the newspaper to Frank Hatton, a former Postmaster General, and Beriah Wilkins, a former Democratic congressman from Ohio. To promote the newspaper, the new owners requested the leader of the United States Marine Band, John Philip Sousa, to compose a march for the newspaper's essay contest awards ceremony. Sousa composed "The Washington Post".[22] It became the standard music to accompany the two-step, a late 19th-century dance craze,[23] and remains one of Sousa's best-known works.
In 1893, the newspaper moved to a building at 14th and E streets NW, where it would remain until 1950. This building combined all functions of the newspaper into one headquarters – newsroom, advertising, typesetting, and printing – that ran 24 hours per day.[24]
In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, the Post printed Clifford K. Berryman's classic illustration Remember the Maine, which became the battle-cry for American sailors during the War. In 1902, Berryman published another famous cartoon in the Post—Drawing the Line in Mississippi. This cartoon depicts President Theodore Roosevelt showing compassion for a small bear cub and inspired New York store owner Morris Michtom to create the teddy bear.[25]
Wilkins acquired Hatton's share of the newspaper 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 John Roll McLean, owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer. During the Wilson presidency, the Post was credited with the "most famous newspaper typo" in D.C. history according to Reason magazine; the Post intended to report that President Wilson had been "entertaining" his future-wife Mrs. Galt, but instead wrote that he had been "entering" Mrs. Galt.[26][27][28]
When John McLean died in 1916, he put the newspaper 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 newspaper slumped toward ruin. He bled the paper for his lavish lifestyle, and used it to promote political agendas.[29]
Meyer–Graham period
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2016) |
In 1929, financier Eugene Meyer (who had run the War Finance Corp. since World War I[30]) secretly made an offer of $5 million for the Post, but he was rebuffed by Ned McLean.[31][32] On June 1, 1933, Meyer bought the paper at a bankruptcy auction for $825,000 three weeks after stepping down as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He had bid anonymously, and was prepared to go up to $2 million, far higher than the other bidders.[33][34] These included William Randolph Hearst, who had long hoped to shut down the ailing Post to benefit his own Washington newspaper presence.[35]
The Post's health and reputation were restored under Meyer's ownership. In 1946, he was succeeded as publisher by his son-in-law, Philip Graham.[36] Meyer eventually got the last laugh over Hearst, who had owned the old Washington Times and the Herald before their 1939 merger that formed the Times-Herald. This was in turn bought by and merged into the Post in 1954.[37] The combined paper was officially named The Washington Post and Times-Herald until 1973, although the Times-Herald portion of the nameplate became less and less prominent over time. The merger left the Post with two remaining local competitors, the Washington Star (Evening Star) and the Washington Daily News which merged together in 1972, forming the Washington Star-News.[38][39] This had again become simply the Washington Star by the time it closed on August 7, 1981, leaving the Post as the only major daily in Washington for almost a year. On May 17, 1982, Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon began publishing the current Washington Times, a conservative daily broadsheet which has always had a circulation only a fraction of the Post's. In 2005, conservative competition increased slightly with the founding of the free tabloid daily The Washington Examiner, which switched to a weekly magazine format in 2013. But the Post, with a far larger presence locally and now nationally as well, has remained Washington's dominant paper since the 1950s.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Land_on_the_Moon_7_21_1969-repair.jpg/220px-Land_on_the_Moon_7_21_1969-repair.jpg)
After Phil Graham's death in 1963, control of The Washington Post Company passed to his wife Katharine Graham (1917–2001), who was also Eugene Meyer's daughter. Few women had run nationally prominent newspapers in the United States. Katharine Graham described her own anxiety and lack of confidence based on her gender in her autobiography. She served as publisher from 1969 to 1979[40] 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 newspaper rise in national stature through effective investigative reporting after it began to live down its reputation as a house organ for the Kennedy and Johnson administration, working to ensure that The New York Times did not surpass its Washington reporting of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandal.
Graham took The Washington Post Company public on June 15, 1971 in the midst of the Pentagon Papers controversy. A total of 1,294,000 shares were offered to the public at $26 per share.[41][42] By the end of Graham's tenure as CEO in 1991, the stock was worth $888 per share, not counting the effect of an intermediate 4:1 stock split.[43]
During this time, Graham also oversaw the Post company's diversification purchase of the for-profit education and training company Kaplan, Inc. for $40 million in 1984.[44] Twenty years later, Kaplan had surpassed the Post newspaper as the company's leading contributor to income, and by 2010 Kaplan accounted for more than 60% of the entire company revenue stream.[45]
Executive editor Ben Bradlee, a Kennedy loyalist, put the newspaper'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 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 newspaper a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
In 1972, the "Book World" section was introduced with Pulitzer Prize–winning critic William McPherson as its first editor.[46] It featured Pulitzer Prize–winning critics such as Jonathan Yardley and Michael Dirda, the latter of whom established his career as a critic at the Post. In 2009, after 37 years, with great reader outcries and protest, The Washington Post Book World as a standalone insert was discontinued, the last issue being Sunday, February 15, 2009,[47] along with a general reorganization of the paper, such as placing the Sunday editorials on the back page of the main front section rather than the "Outlook" section and distributing some other locally oriented "op-ed" letters and commentaries in other sections.[48] However, book reviews are still published in the Outlook section on Sundays and in the Style section the rest of the week, as well as online.[48]
In 1980, the newspaper published a dramatic story called "Jimmy's World",[49] 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 E. Graham, Katharine's son, succeeded her as publisher in 1979[40] and in the early 1990s became both chief executive officer and chairman of the board. He was succeeded in 2000 as publisher and CEO by Boisfeuillet Jones Jr., with Graham remaining as chairman.
Katharine Weymouth, Donald Graham's niece, served as publisher and chief executive officer from 2008 until 2014, when Jeff Bezos took over ownership of the paper.
Jeff Bezos era (2013–present)
The Post made its own major news in 2013 when Jeff Bezos purchased the paper for US$250 million cash.[50][2][51] The newspaper is now owned by Nash Holdings LLC controlled by Bezos.[50] The sale also included some other local publications, websites and real estate.[52][53][54] After the sale the Washington Post Co. became Graham Holdings Company[10][55]
Bezos said he has a vision that recreates "the 'daily ritual' of reading the Post as a bundle, not merely a series of individual stories..."[56] He has been described as a "hands-off owner," holding teleconference calls with executive editor Martin Baron every two weeks.[57] Bezos appointed Fred Ryan (founder and CEO of Politico) to serve as Publisher and CEO of the Post. This signaled Bezos’ intent to shift the Post to a more digital focus with a national and global readership.[58]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Washington_Post_demolition_2016.jpg/220px-Washington_Post_demolition_2016.jpg)
In 2014, the Post announced it was moving from 1150 15th Street to a leased space three blocks away at One Franklin Square on K Street.[59] In recent years the Post launched an online personal finance section,[60] as well as a blog and a podcast with a retro theme.[61][62]
Political stance
1933–2000
When financier Eugene Meyer bought the bankrupt Post in 1933, he assured the public he wouldn't be beholden to any party.[63] But as a leading Republican (it was his old friend Herbert Hoover who had made him Fed Chairman in 1930), his opposition to FDR's New Deal colored the paper's editorial stance as well as its news coverage. This included editorializing "news" stories written by Meyer under a fake name.[64][65][66] His wife Agnes Ernst Meyer was a journalist from the other end of the spectrum politically. The Post ran many of her pieces including tributes to her personal friends John Dewey and Saul Alinsky.[67][68][69][70]
Eugene Meyer became head of the World Bank in 1946, and he named his son-in-law Phil Graham to succeed him as Post publisher. The post-war years saw the developing friendship of Phil and Kay Graham with the Kennedys, the Bradlees and the rest of the "Georgetown Set" (many Harvard alumni) that would color the Post's political orientation.[71] Kay Graham's most memorable Georgetown soirée guest list included British diplomat/communist spy Donald Maclean.[72][73]
The Post is credited with inventing the term "McCarthyism" in a 1950 editorial cartoon by Herbert Block.[74] Depicting buckets of tar, it made fun of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's "tarring" tactics, i.e., smear campaigns and character assassination against those targeted by his accusations. Sen. McCarthy was attempting to do for the Senate what the House Un-American Activities Committee had been doing for years — investigating Soviet espionage in America. The HUAC made Richard Nixon nationally known for his role in the Hiss/Chambers case that exposed communist spying in the State Department. The committee had evolved from the McCormack-Dickstein Committee of the 1930s.[75]
Phil Graham's friendship with JFK remained strong until their untimely deaths in 1963.[76] FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover reportedly told the new 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."[77][78]
Ben Bradlee became the editor-in-chief in 1968, and Kay Graham officially became the publisher in 1969, paving the way for the aggressive reporting of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandals. In the mid-1970s, some conservatives referred to the Post as "Pravda on the Potomac" because of its perceived left-wing bias in both reporting and editorials.[79] Since then, the appellation has been used by both liberal and conservative critics of the newspaper.[80][81]
2000–present
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.[82] According to author and journalist Greg Mitchell, "By the Post's own admission, in the months before the war, it ran more than 140 stories on its front page promoting the war, while contrary information 'got lost', as one Post staffer told Kurtz."[83]
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".[84] It has regularly published an ideological mixture of op-ed columnists, some of them left-leaning (including E. J. Dionne, Dana Milbank, Greg Sargent, and Eugene Robinson), and many on the right (including George Will, Marc Thiessen, Michael Gerson and Charles Krauthammer, who continued writing columns until shortly before his death in 2018).
In a study published on April 18, 2007, by Yale professors Alan Gerber, Dean Karlan, and Daniel Bergan, citizens were given a subscription to either the conservative-leaning Washington Times or the liberal-leaning Washington Post to see the effect that media has on voting patterns. Gerber had estimated based on his work that the Post slanted as much to the left as the Times did to the right. Gerber found those who were given a free subscription of the Post were 7.9–11.4% more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate for governor than those assigned to the control group, depending on the adjustment for the date on which individual participants were surveyed and the survey interviewer; surprisingly, however, people who received the Times were also more likely than controls to vote for the Democrat, with an effect approximately 60% as large as that estimated for the Post.[85][86] The study authors noted that sampling error might have played a role in the effect of the conservative-leaning Times, as might the fact that the Democratic candidate took more conservative-leaning positions than is typical for his party, and "the month prior to the post-election survey was a difficult period for President Bush, one in which his overall approval rating fell by approximately 4 percentage points nationwide. It appears that heightened exposure to both papers’ news coverage, despite opposing ideological slants, moved public opinion away from Republicans."[86]
In November 2007, the newspaper 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.[87] In 2009, Parry criticized the newspaper for its allegedly unfair reporting on liberal politicians, including Vice President Al Gore and President Barack Obama.[88]
Responding to criticism of the newspaper's coverage during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, former Post ombudsman Deborah 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."[89] According to a 2009 Oxford University Press book by Richard Davis on the impact of blogs on American politics, liberal bloggers link to The Washington Post and The New York Times more often than other major newspapers; however, conservative bloggers also link predominantly to liberal newspapers.[90]
In mid-September 2016, Matthew Ingram of Forbes joined Glenn Greenwald of the Intercept, and Trevor Trimm of The Guardian in cricitizing The Washington Post for "demanding that [former National Security Agency contractor Edward] Snowden ... stand trial on espionage charges".[91][92][93][94]
In December 2016, The Post published a story inaccurately stating that a Russian hacking operation had infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid; the claim was retracted in a revised version of the story, after the initial version had been widely circulated.[95][96]
In February 2017, amid a barrage of criticism from President Donald Trump over the paper's coverage of his campaign and early presidency as well as concerns among the American press about Trump's criticism and threats against journalists who provide coverage he deems unfavorable, the Post adopted the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" for its masthead.[97]
Political endorsements
Katharine Graham wrote in her autobiography Personal History that the newspaper long had a policy of not making endorsements for political candidates. However, since at least 2000, the newspaper has occasionally endorsed Republican politicians, such as Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich.[98] In 2006, it repeated its historic endorsements of every Republican incumbent for Congress in Northern Virginia.[99] There have also been times when the Post has specifically chosen not to endorse any candidate, such as in the 1988 presidential election when it refused to endorse then-Governor Michael Dukakis or then-Vice President George H. W. Bush.[100] On October 17, 2008, the Post endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.[101] On October 25, 2012, the newspaper endorsed the re-election of Barack Obama.[102] The Post has endorsed Democrats for president during at least nine different presidential elections.[103] The paper has never endorsed a Republican for president.[103] On October 21, 2014, the newspaper endorsed 44 Democratic candidates versus 3 Republican candidates for the 2014 elections in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.[104] On October 13, 2016, it endorsed Hillary Clinton for the presidential election of that year.[105]
The Post's early endorsements in the 1978 elections for Maryland Governor (reformist Harry Hughes) and for D.C. Mayor (a young Marion Barry) allowed those candidates to tout their endorsements, thereby distinguishing them from an otherwise crowded field of big name candidates.
Criticism and controversies
Pay practices
In June 2018, over 400 employees of the Washington Post signed an open letter to owner Jeff Bezos demanding "fair wages; fair benefits for retirement, family leave and health care; and a fair amount of job security." The open letter was accompanied by video testimonials from employees, who alleged "shocking pay practices" despite record growth in subscriptions at the newspaper, with salaries only rising an average of $10 per week, less than half the rate of inflation.[106] The petition followed on a year of unsuccessful negotiations between the Washington Post Guild and upper management over pay and benefit increases.[107]
PropOrNot article
In November 2016, the Post published a story that relied heavily on a report by PropOrNot, an anonymous internet group that seeks to expose what it calls Russian propaganda. PropOrNot published a list of websites they called "bona-fide 'useful idiots'" of the Russian government.[108] Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor for Harper's, was sharply critical of Post's decision to put the story on its front page, calling the article a "sorry piece of trash".[109] Writers in The Intercept, Fortune, and Rolling Stone also criticized Post for including a report by an organization with no reputation for fact-checking in an article on "fake news".[110][111][112] Looking more carefully into their methodology, Adrian Chen, staff writer for The New Yorker, argued that PropOrNot's criteria for establishing propaganda were so broad that they could have included "not only Russian state-controlled media organizations, such as Russia Today, but nearly every news outlet in the world, including the Post itself" on their list.[113]
Private "salon" solicitation
In July 2009, in the midst of intense debate over health care reform, The Politico reported that a health-care lobbyist had received an "astonishing" offer of access to the Post's "health-care reporting and editorial staff."[114] Post publisher Katharine Weymouth had planned a series of exclusive dinner parties or "salons" at her private residence, to which she had invited prominent lobbyists, trade group members, politicians and business people.[115] Participants were to be charged $25,000 to sponsor a single salon, and $250,000 for 11 sessions, with the events being closed to the public and to the non-Post press.[116] Politico's revelation sparked controversy in Washington, as it gave the impression that the parties' sole purpose was to allow insiders to purchase face time with Post staff. Here is how the full-color brochure described the event planned for July 21, 2009:
"Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate. . . . Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. . . . Bring your organization's CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders. . . . Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it. [Meet] health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post. . . . an exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few . . ."[117]
Almost immediately following the disclosure, Weymouth canceled the salons, saying, "This should never have happened." White House counsel Greg Craig reminded officials that under federal ethics rules, they need advance approval for such events. Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli, who was named on the flier as one of the salon’s "Hosts and Discussion Leaders," said he was "appalled" by the plan, adding, "It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase."[117]
"Jimmy's World" fabrication
In September 1980, a Sunday feature story appeared on the front page of the Post titled "Jimmy's World" in which reporter Janet Cooke wrote a profile of the life of an eight-year-old heroin addict.[118] Although some within the Post doubted the story's veracity, the paper's editors defended it, and assistant managing editor Bob Woodward submitted the story for Pulitzer Prize consideration. Cooke was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing on April 13, 1981. The story was then found to be a complete fabrication, and the Pulitzer was returned.[119] In retrospect, Woodward made the following statement:
I think that the decision to nominate the story for a Pulitzer is of minimal consequence. I also think that it won is of little consequence. It is a brilliant story—fake and fraud that it is. It would be absurd for me or any other editor to review the authenticity or accuracy of stories that are nominated for prizes.[120]
Executive officers and editors (past and present)
Major stockholders
- Stilson Hutchins (1877–1889)
- Frank Hatton and Beriah Wilkins (1889–1905)
- McLean Family
- John R. McLean (1905–1916)
- Edward (Ned) McLean (1916–1933)
- Eugene Meyer (1933–1948)
- Graham Family (1948–2013)
- Nash Holdings (Jeff Bezos) (2013–Present)
Publishers
- Stilson Hutchins (1877–1889)
- Beriah Wilkins (1889–1905)
- John R. McLean (1905–1916)
- Edward (Ned) McLean (1916–1933)
- Eugene Meyer (1933–1946)
- Philip L. Graham (1946–1961)
- John W. Sweeterman (1961–1968)
- Katharine Graham (1969–1979)
- Donald E. Graham (1979–2000)
- Boisfeuillet Jones Jr. (2000–2008)
- Katharine Weymouth (2008–2014)
- Frederick J. Ryan Jr. (2014–Present)
Executive Editors
- James Russell Wiggins (1955–1968)
- Ben Bradlee (1968–1991)
- Leonard Downie Jr. (1991–2008)
- Marcus Brauchli (2008–2012)[121]
- Martin Baron (2012–present)
Notable current staff
- Dan Balz (Chief correspondent — Washington, D.C.)[122]
- Robert Costa (Reporter — Washington, D.C.)[123]
- Karoun Demirjian (Reporter — Washington, D.C.)[124]
- David A. Fahrenthold (Reporter — Washington, D.C.)[125]
- Shane Harris (Intelligence Reporter — Washington, D.C.)[126]
- David Ignatius (Opinion writer — Washington, D.C.)[127]
- Carol D. Leonnig[128]
- Ruth Marcus (Deputy editorial page editor — Washington, D.C.)[129]
- Ashley Parker[130]
- Kathleen Parker (Opinion writer — Washington, D.C.)[131]
- Catherine Rampell (Opinion writer — Washington, D.C.)[132]
- Eugene Robinson (Opinion writer — Washington, D.C.)[133]
- Jennifer Rubin (Opinion writer — Washington, D.C.)[134]
- Philip Rucker[135]
- David Weigel[136]
- George F. Will (Opinion writer — Washington, D.C.)[137]
See also
- List of prizes won by The Washington Post
- The Post, 2017 film based on the publication of Pentagon Papers
- All the President's Men, 1974 book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward about the Watergate scandal
References
- ^ Somaiya, Ravi (September 2, 2014). "Publisher of The Washington Post Will Resign". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
- ^ a b Clabaugh, Jeff (October 1, 2013). "Jeff Bezos Completes Washington Post Acquisition". Washington Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
- ^ Washington Post Staff (January 1, 2016). "Leadership of The Washington Post". Washington Post. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
- ^ "Contact The Washington Post reporters, columnists and bloggers". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 22, 2012.
{{cite news}}
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- ^ "Total Circ for US Newspapers". Archived from the original on May 3, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
{{cite web}}
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- ^ Kurtz, Howard (April 8, 2008). "The Post Wins 6 Pulitzer Prizes". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 8, 2008.
- ^ "Walter Reed and Beyond". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
- ^ a b Irwin, Neil; Mui, Ylan Q. (August 5, 2013). "Washington Post Sale: Details of Bezos Deal". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
Notably, Bezos — through a new holding company called Nash Holdings LLC— will be buying only the Post newspaper and closely held related ventures.
- ^ "The Real Reason Jeff Bezos Bought The Washington Post". Fast Company. August 6, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
- ^ "Washington Post – Daily Newspaper in Washington DC, USA with Local News and Events". Mondo Times. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
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- ^ "The Washington Post's Circulation and Reach". Washington Post Media. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved March 2, 2009.
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- ^ "Washington Post to close three regional bureaux". BBC News. November 25, 2009. Retrieved November 25, 2009.
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- ^ O'Connell, Jonathan (November 27, 2013). "Washington Post headquarters to sell to Carr Properties for $159 million". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
- ^ O'Connell, Jonathan (May 23, 2014). "Washington Post signs lease for new headquarters". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
- ^ Shan Wang (February 2, 2018). "Here's how Arc's cautious quest to become the go-to publishing system for news organizations is going". Nieman Lab, Harvard University.
- ^ "1889". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 12, 2006.
- ^ "John Philip Sousa Collection". University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Archived from the original on May 31, 2009.
- ^ Fisher, Marc (December 10, 2015). "Goodbye, old Washington Post, home of the newspaper the Grahams built". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
- ^ "Clifford K. Berryman Political Cartoon Collection". www.archives.gov. Retrieved August 12, 2015.
- ^ Rabbe, Will (June 8, 2013). "The Washington Post's Famous 1915 Typo". MSNBC.
- ^ Freund, Charles Paul (July 2001). "D.C. Jewels: The closing of a historic shop is a triumph of meaning over means". Reason. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
...Mrs. Edith Galt, who became the second wife of Woodrow Wilson ... She also figures in the most famous newspaper typo in D.C. history. 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 there.
- ^ Weingarten, Gene (July 11, 2006). "Chatological Humor* (Updated 7.14.06)". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
The Post said that the President spent the afternoon "entertaining" Mrs. Galt, but they dropped the "tain" in one edition. Wilson LOVED it.
- ^ Carol Felsenthal (1993). Power, Privilege and the Post: The Katharine Graham Story. Seven Stories Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-60980-290-5. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
- ^ Eustace Clarence Mullins (2013). Study of The Federal Reserve. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-62793-114-4.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - ^ Carol Felsenthal (1993). Power, Privilege and the Post: The Katharine Graham Story. Seven Stories Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-60980-290-5. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
- ^ Chalmers McGeagh Roberts (1977). "Headed for Disaster – Ned McLean I". The Washington Post: The First 100 Years. Houghton Mifflin. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-395-25854-5. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - ^ Carol Felsenthal (1993). Power, Privilege and the Post: The Katharine Graham Story. Seven Stories Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-60980-290-5. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
- ^ Chalmers McGeagh Roberts (1977). The Washington Post: The First 100 Years. Houghton Mifflin. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-395-25854-5. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
- ^ Chalmers McGeagh Roberts (1977). The Washington Post: The First 100 Years. Houghton Mifflin. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-395-25854-5. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
- ^ Roberts, Chalmers M. (June 1, 1983). "Eugene Meyer Bought Post 50 Years Ago". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
- ^ "Washington Times-Herald Sold by Tribune Company (March 18, 1954)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 23, 2017.[dead link]
- ^ Times, B. Drummond Ayres Jr , Special To The New York (July 24, 1981). "Washington Star is to Shut Down After 128 Years". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
{{cite news}}
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- ^ a b "Donald E. Graham Is Named Publisher of Washington Post". Washington Post. January 10, 1979. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
- ^ "Washington Post Offering Due Today at $26 a Share" (PDF). The New York Times. June 15, 1971. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
- ^ "Our Company". Graham Holdings. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
- ^ Telford, Dana; Gostick, Adrian Robert (2005). Integrity Works: Strategies for Becoming a Trusted, Respected and Admired Leader (First ed.). Gibbs Smith. p. 81. ISBN 1-58685-054-7. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
- ^ The trials of Kaplan Higher Ed and the education of The Washington Post Co., Washington Post, Steven Mufson and Jia Lynn Yang, April 9, 2011.
- ^ Nice Guy, Finishing Last: How Don Graham Fumbled the Washington Post Co., Forbes, Jeff Bercovici, February 8, 2012.
- ^ Arana-Ward (then-deputy editor of "Book World"), Marie (June 1, 1997). "Views From Publisher's Row". The Washington Post.
{{cite news}}
:|last=
has generic name (help) - ^ John Gaines. "Where Have All the Magazines Gone?". Library Point. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
- ^ a b Letter from the editor, The Washington Post, Sunday, February 15, 2009; Page BW02
- ^ Cooke, Janet (September 28, 1980). "Jimmy's World". University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Archived from the original on December 27, 2008. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
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suggested) (help) - ^ a b Fahri, Paul (October 1, 2013). "The Washington Post Closes Sale to Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286.
- ^ Farhi, Paul (August 5, 2013). "Washington Post To Be Sold to Jeff Bezos, the Founder of Amazon". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved August 5, 2013.
- ^ Shay, Kevin James (October 1, 2013). "Bezos completes purchase of Gazettes, Post". The Maryland Gazette. Archived from the original on March 13, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Form 8-K. THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY. Commission File Number 1-6714. Exhibit 2.1: Letter Agreement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. August 5, 2013. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- ^ Harwell, Drew (June 12, 2015). "Gazette Papers in Montgomery, Prince George's to Close". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
- ^ Debbi Wilgoren (November 18, 2013). "Washington Post Co. renamed Graham Holdings Company to mark sale of newspaper". Washington Post. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- ^ Farhi, Paul; Timberg, Craig (September 28, 2013). "Jeff Bezos to His Future Washington Post Journalists: Put the Readers First". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
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suggested) (help) - ^ Stewart, James B. (May 19, 2017). "Washington Post, Breaking News, Is Also Breaking New Ground". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
- ^ Bond, Shannon (September 2, 2014). "Jeff Bezos picks Fred Ryan of Politico to run Washington Post". FT. Financial Times. Retrieved September 17, 2016.
- ^ O'Connell, Jonathan (September 4, 2015). "Inside the wild ride that landed The Washington Post on K Street". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
- ^ Barr, Jeremy. "Washington Post launches personal finance section". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
- ^ "The Washington Post launches Retropolis: A History Blog". Washington Post.
- ^ "The Washington Post to launch Retropod podcast". Washington Post.
- ^ Chalmers McGeagh Roberts (1977). The Washington Post: The First 100 Years. Houghton Mifflin. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-395-25854-5.
- ^ Tom Kelly (1983). The Imperial Post: The Meyers, the Grahams, and the Paper that Rules Washington. Morrow. pp. 63–64. ISBN 978-0-688-01919-8.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - ^ "Ernest Lamb" (April 8, 1934). "New Deal a Mistake, Says Glass, Holding U.S. Will Regret It: Senator, in Interview, Tells 'Unvarnished Truth'". Eugene Meyer. The Washington Post. pp. 1, 4.
- ^ "Ernest Lamb" (October 8, 1936). "Council Fought Security Act, Records Show: Statements by Wagner and Winant Are Refuted by Hearing Transcript". Eugene Meyer. The Washington Post. pp. 1, 12.
- ^ Agnes Ernst Meyer (December 10, 1939). "In Defense of Dr. Dewey". The Washington Post. p. B8.
- ^ Carol Felsenthal (1993). Power, Privilege and the Post: The Katharine Graham Story. Seven Stories Press. pp. 19, 127. ISBN 978-1-60980-290-5.
- ^ Agnes Ernst Meyer (1945). "Orderly Revolution". The Washington Post.
{{cite book}}
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(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ Sanford D. Horwitt (1989). Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky, His Life and Legacy. Knopf. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-394-57243-7.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - ^ Gregg Herken (October 22, 2014). "The Georgetown Set". Politico. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
{{cite news}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ Roland Philipps (2018). A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean. W. W. Norton. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-393-60858-8.
- ^ Katharine Graham (1997). Personal History. A.A. Knopf. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-394-58585-7.
- ^ Chalmers McGeagh Roberts (1977). The Washington Post: The First 100 Years. Houghton Mifflin. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-395-25854-5.
- ^ Peter Duffy (October 6, 2014). "The Congressman Who Spied for Russia: The Strange Case of Samuel Dickstein". Politico. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
{{cite news}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ Chalmers McGeagh Roberts (1977). The Washington Post: The First 100 Years. Houghton Mifflin. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-395-25854-5. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - ^ Michael R. Beschloss (1997). Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964. Simon & Schuster. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-684-80407-1.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - ^
Taylor Branch (1997). Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–65. Simon & Schuster. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-4165-5870-5.
{{cite book}}
: Invalid|ref=harv
(help) - ^ Bruce Bartlett (March 13, 2007), "Partisan Press Parity". The Washington Times.
- ^ James Kirchick (February 17, 2009), "Pravda on the Potomac". The New Republic.
- ^ William Greider (March 6, 2003), "Washington Post Warriors", The Nation
- ^ "Transcript: "Buying the War"". PBS. April 25, 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
- ^ "Eleven Years On: How 'The Washington Post' Helped Give Us the Iraq War". The Nation. March 12, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|dead-url=
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Hardball with Chris Matthews for March 23". MSNBC. March 26, 2007. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ^ "Republicans' media bias claims boosted by scarcity of right-leaning journalists". The Washington Times. Retrieved February 13, 2016.
- ^ a b Gerber A, Karlan DS, Bergan D (April 18, 2007). "Does The Media Matter? A Field Experiment Measuring the Effect of Newspapers on Voting Behavior and Political Opinions" (PDF). Yale University. Yale University.
- ^ Robert Parry (November 29, 2007). "WPost Buys into Anti-Obama Bigotry". Consortium News. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ^ Robert Parry (March 19, 2009), "Framing Obama – by the WPost", Consortium News
- ^ Howell, Deborah (November 16, 2008). "Remedying the Bias Perception". The Washington Post.
- ^ Richard Davis (2009). Typing Politics: The Role of Blogs in American Politics. Oxford UP. p. 79. ISBN 9780199706136.
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- ^ Ingram, Matthew. "Here's Why The Washington Post Is Wrong About Edward Snowden".
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{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=
(help) - ^ Eilperin, Juliet; Entous, Adam (December 31, 2016). "Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility, showing risk to U.S. electrical grid security, officials say". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
- ^ Farhi, Paul (February 23, 2017). "The Washington Post's new slogan turns out to be an old saying". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Wrong Choice for Governor". The Washington Post. October 26, 2006. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ^ "For Congress in Virginia". The Washington Post. October 30, 2006. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ^ "Post Makes No Endorsement". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 2, 1988.
- ^ "Barack Obama for President". The Washington Post. October 17, 2008. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ^ Board, Editorial (October 25, 2012). "Washington Post Endorsement: Four More Years for President Obama". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
- ^ a b "Patrick Pexton: The Post's endorsements historically tend Democratic". Washington Post. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
- ^ "The Washington Post's endorsements for the 2014 elections". Washington Post.
- ^ Board, Editorial (October 13, 2016). "Hillary Clinton for President". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
- ^ Template:Cite article
- ^ Template:Cite article
- ^ Nelson, Steven (November 29, 2016). "Publications Called Russian-Propaganda Distributors Consider Suing Anonymous 'Experts'". U.S. News & World Report.
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- ^ Gautham Nagesh (July 2, 2009) "WaPo Salons Sell Access to Lobbyists", The Atlantic
- ^ a b Howard Kurtz (July 3, 2009), "Washington Post Publisher Cancels Planned Policy Dinners After Outcry", The Washington Post
- ^ Janet Cooke (September 28, 1980). "Jimmy's World". The Washington Post. p. A1. Retrieved July 9, 2016.
- ^ Mike Sager (Spring 2016), "The fabulist who changed journalism", Columbia Journalism Review
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- ^ "Dan Balz". Washington Post. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
- ^ "Robert Costa". Washington Post. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
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Further reading
- Kelly, Tom. The imperial Post: The Meyers, the Grahams, and the paper that rules Washington (Morrow, 1983)
- Lewis, Norman P. "Morning Miracle. Inside the Washington Post: A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life". Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly (2011) 88#1 pp: 219.
- Merrill, John C. and Harold A. Fisher. The world's great dailies: profiles of fifty newspapers (1980) pp 342–52
- Roberts, Chalmers McGeagh. In the shadow of power: the story of the Washington Post (Seven Locks Pr, 1989)
External links
- Official website
- Today's The Washington Post front page at the Freedom Forum website
- "The Washington Post Company history"
- Scott Sherman, May 2002, "Donald Graham's Washington Post" Columbia Journalism Review. September / October 2002.
- Video Interview with then-Baghdad Bureau Chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran
- Jaffe, Harry. "Post Watch: Family Dynasty Continues with Katharine II", Washingtonian, February 26, 2008.
- The Washington Post
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- Peabody Award winners
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