Institute Hosts Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth for a Roundtable Discussion

“Personally, I believe that print serves a purpose,” Katharine Weymouth stated unequivocally. The heir-apparent and granddaughter to the famed Katharine Graham is at the helm of Washington Post Media as CEO and publisher—and she’s got her work cut out for her. “They say I missed the party and came in for the hangover,” Weymouth joked as she explained the challenges ahead of her, including a new media landscape that has some critics tolling the death knell for print journalism.



Still, the vivacious publisher was sanguine about the future, noting that similar predictions had been made about movies, radio, and television: “But they all reinvented themselves.” Weymouth said that her business strategy remained a standard advertising and circulation model but that she was open to new means of monetizing the Post. To that end, the Post has entered into a relationship with the e-book reader Kindle and appointed a Chief Digital Officer. Weymouth, however, was skeptical about using the Post’s website as a social networking hub, and downright opposed to an iTunes-style vending whereby stories could be purchased individually. Weymouth said the packaging of the newspaper as a whole, with related stories and features, was still relevant in today’s environment, and she reminded the audience that, while “ipods make a lot of money, record companies are not.”

Looking at the challenges from a host of new competitors—“from E-Bay to CarMax, from Huffington Post to Politico”—Weymouth acknowledged that newspapers have to adapt. “[Huffington Post is] a good kick in the pants for us. We have to make our news more compelling and engaging for the reader.” But, with the election of Barack Obama, Weymouth sees an opportunity: “Washington itself will be a big story over the next four years.” And what better paper to cover it all than the Post? After all, “we’re a local paper that happens to sit in the nation’s capital.”