The Washington Post
- Alternative meaning: The Washington Post (march)
The Washington Post is the largest and oldest newspaper in Washington, DC. It gained worldwide fame in the early 1970s for its Watergate investigation by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein which played a major role in the undoing of the Nixon presidency. It is generally considered second only to the New York Times in stature among American daily newspapers. The Post has a reputation for being especially good at coverage of American national politics, befitting its location in the nation's capital; in contrast, the Times focuses more on foreign affairs coverage. The flip side of this image, however, is that the Post (and Washington itself) is sometimes seen as devoted to politics at the expense of the rest of life.
It is now part of the Washington Post Company, which owns a number of other media and non-media companies, including Newsweek magazine.
The paper was owned by Washington McLean and his son John Roll McLean. When John died he put the paper in trust, not trusting his playboy son Ned with his inheritance. Ned went to court and broke the trust, quickly driving the paper to ruin. It was purchased in a bankruptcy auction in 1933 by a member of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, Eugene Meyer (1875-1959). Meyer's daughter, Katharine Graham, took control of the Washington Post Company after the suicide of her husband Philip L. Graham in 1963. She was publisher of the newspaper from 1969 to 1979, chairman of the board from 1973 to 1991 and chairman of the executive committee from 1993 until her death in 2001. Her son, Donald Graham, was publisher from 1979 to 2000 when Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr. took over as publisher and CEO of The Washington Post.
Notable Contributors
