The Washington Post

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This article is about the newspaper. For the John Phillip Sousa march, see The Washington Post (march).
The Washington Post
WP01092008.jpg
Front page for Sunday, October 25, 2009.
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner The Washington Post Company
Publisher Katharine Weymouth
Editor Marcus Brauchli
Founded 1877
Headquarters 1150 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.,
United States
Circulation 578,482 Daily
542,463 Saturday
797,679 Sunday[1]
ISSN 0190-8286
Official website washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation.

The newspaper is written as a broadsheet, with photographs printed both in color and 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 operates a syndication service (The Washington Post Writers Group) and under its parent company of The Washington Post Company, is involved in the Washington Post Media, Washington Post Digital, and washingtonpost.com.

Perhaps the most notable incident in the Post's history was when, in the early 1970s, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American media's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal. The newspaper's reporting greatly contributed to the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon. In later years, its investigations led to increased review of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.[2] The newspaper is also known as the namesake of "The Washington Post March", the 1889 march composed by John Phillip Sousa while he was leading the U.S. Marine Band;[3] it became the standard music to accompany the two-step, a late 19th-century dance craze.[4]

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.[5] The Post has also received 18 Nieman Fellowships, and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards, among others.

Contents

General overview

The Post is generally regarded among the leading daily American newspapers,[citation needed] 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, 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.[6] The majority of its newsprint readership is in the District of Columbia, as well as its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia.[7]

The Post is one of a few U.S. newspapers with foreign bureaus, located in Baghdad, Beijing, Berlin, Bogota, Islamabad, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Kabul, London, Mexico City, Moscow, Nairobi, New Delhi, Paris, and Tokyo.[8] 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."[9] The paper has local bureaus in Maryland (Annapolis, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, Southern Maryland) and Virginia (Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun County, City of Richmond, and Prince William County).[10]

As of September 2009, its average weekday circulation was 582,844, 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.[citation needed]

History

Founding and early period

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 John Roll McLean, owner 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.[11][12] 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.

Meyer-Graham period

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) about one-seventh that of the Post.[13]

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

After Graham's death 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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[15]

In 1980, the Post published a dramatic story called "Jimmy's World",[16] 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.

Post Graham period

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.

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.[17]

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.[18]

On November 24, 2009, the Post announced that is was closing its remaining national bureaux noting "We are not a national news organization of record serving a general audience."[19]

Political stance

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

Throughout its history, the Post has been accused by critics of having either a left wing or a right wing bias.

In the mid-1970s, some conservatives called The Washington Post "Pravda on the Potomac" due to their perceived left-wing bias in both reporting and editorials,[20] This characterization referred 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.[21][22] In 1963, 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."[23][24]

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.[25] It also has endorsed Republican politicians, such as Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich.[26] In 2006, it repeated its historic endorsements of every Republican incumbent for Congress in Northern Virginia.[27] 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.[28] On October 17, 2008, the Post endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.[29]

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.[30]

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, which is owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate owned by the Unification Church which also owns newspapers in South Korea, Japan, and South America. 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."[31] 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.[32]

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".[33] It has regularly published an ideological mixture of op-ed columnists, some of them liberal (including E.J. Dionne, Ezra Klein, Greg Sargent, and Eugene Robinson), and some on the right (including George Will, Marc Thiessen, Robert Samuelson, Michael Gerson, and Charles Krauthammer).

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.[34] In 2009, Parry criticized the Post for its allegedly unfair reporting on liberal politicians, including Vice President Al Gore and President Barack Obama.[35]

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".[36] 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".[36]

Glenn Greenwald has called its Op-Ed page the "leading outlet for neoconservative and related right-wing advocacy".[2]

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)

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)

Honors and achievements

Main article: List of prizes won by The Washington Post

References

  1. ^ "Audit Bureau of Circulation". http://abcas3.accessabc.com/ecirc/newstitlesearchus.asp. Retrieved 2010-07-19. 
  2. ^ Reed, Walter. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/walter-reed/index.html. Retrieved 2010-05-25. 
  3. ^ 1889 from the paper's corporate history
  4. ^ John Philip Sousa Collection from the website of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  5. ^ 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. 
  6. ^ "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. 
  7. ^ "The Washington Post's Circulation and Reach". Washington Post Media. http://www.washingtonpostads.com/adsite/why/media/reach/page1450.html. Retrieved 2009-03-02. 
  8. ^ "Washington Post Foreign Bureaus". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/foreignbureaus/index.html. Retrieved 2009-11-25. 
  9. ^ "Washington Post to close three regional bureaus". BBC News. 25 November 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8377802.stm. Retrieved 2009-11-25. 
  10. ^ "Washington Post Bureaus". The Washington Post. http://www.washpost.com/news_ed/news/bureaus.shtml. Retrieved 2009-11-25. 
  11. ^ 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." 
  12. ^ 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." 
  13. ^ "Washington Times - Times circulation climbs to buck trend". Washtimes.com. http://www.washtimes.com/business/20050518-120247-7729r.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
  14. ^ Book World 25th Anniversary: Views From Publisher's Row, Marie Arana-Ward (then-deputy editor of "Book World"), The Washington Post, June 1, 1997
  15. ^ a b Letter from the editor, The Washington post, Sunday, February 15, 2009; Page BW02
  16. ^ "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. 
  17. ^ 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. 
  18. ^ 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. 
  19. ^ Kurtz, Howard (2009-11-24). "Washington Post shutters last U.S. bureaus". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/24/AR2009112403014.html. Retrieved 2009-12-26. 
  20. ^ Bruce Bartlett, Partisan Press Parity?, The Washington Times, March 13, 2007.
  21. ^ James Kirchick, Pravda on the Potomac, The New Republic, February 18, 2009.
  22. ^ William Greider, 'Washington Post' Warriors, The Nation, March 6, 2003.
  23. ^ Beschloss, Michael (1997), Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 32, ISBN 0684804077 .
  24. ^ Branch, Taylor (1999), Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-1965, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 180, ISBN 0684848090 .
  25. ^ "Kerry for President (washingtonpost.com)". washingtonpost.com. 2004-10-24. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57584-2004Oct23.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
  26. ^ "Wrong Choice for Governor - washingtonpost.com". washingtonpost.com. 2006-10-26. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102501668.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
  27. ^ "For Congress in Virginia - washingtonpost.com". washingtonpost.com. 2006-10-30. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/29/AR2006102900552.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
  28. ^ [1][dead link]
  29. ^ "Barack Obama for President". washingtonpost.com. 2008-10-17. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603436.html?hpid=opinionsbox1. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
  30. ^ Transcript: "Buying the War", PBS, http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/transcript1.html, retrieved 2009-12-13 
  31. ^ "Frontline: Reverend Moon". MediaChannel.org. http://www.mediachannel.org/originals/moontranscript.shtml. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
  32. ^ How the Liberal Media Stonewalled the Edwards Chicago Daily Observer August 18, 2008
  33. ^ 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. 
  34. ^ "WPost Buys into Anti-Obama Bigotry". Consortiumnews.com. 2007-11-29. http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/112907.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
  35. ^ Framing Obama - by the WPost, Robert Parry, Consortium News, March 19, 2009
  36. ^ a b Howell, Deborah: "Remedying the Bias Perception", WashingtonPost.com, November 19, 2008
  37. ^ "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." 

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