- This article discusses the news daily. The Washington Post is also a patriotic march by John Philip Sousa
The Washington Post is the largest and oldest newspaper in Washington, D.C. 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. Conversely, the Post (like 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 online magazine Slate, and the Kaplan test preparation service.
Circulation
As of September 2004, its average daily circulation was 707,690 and its Sunday circulation was 1,007,487, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation . It is the fifth largest newspaper in the country by circulation, behind The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
Major Sections
Daily
- The Front Page
- Metro (local news)
- Style
- Sports
- Business
Day Specific
- Weekend
- Food
- Washington Post Magazine
History
The paper was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins and in 1880 became the first newspaper in Washington, D.C. to publish daily. In 1899, during the Spanish-American War, the Post printed Clifford K. Berryman's illustration Remember the Maine.
In 1905 Washington McLean and his son John Roll McLean , owners of the Cincinnati Enquirer, purchased a controlling interest. When John died in 1916 he put the paper in trust, having little faith in his playboy son Edward "Ned" McLean 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, who restored the paper's health and reputation. Philip L. Graham , Meyer's son-in-law, would work his way up to become publisher upon Graham's death in 1959.
In 1954 the Post acquired its chief rival, the Times-Herald, to become the only morning daily in Washington. Thenceforth its main competition was the Washington Star (Evening Star) until that paper's demise in 1981. After Graham committed suicide in 1963, control of the Washington Post Company passed to Meyer's daughter, Katharine Graham. 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.
As of 2005 the Post had been honored with 18 Pulitzer Prizes, 18 Nieman Fellowships , and 368 White House News Photographers Association Awards, among others.
Notable contributors
Executive Officers and Editors - Past and Previous
External links
Last updated: 05-21-2005 01:43:55
