The Final Hours of a Pre-Bezos 'Washington Post'

What's This?

By Amanda Wills2013-08-06 20:06:23 UTC

The four o'clock hour in the Washington Post newsroom is always a scramble. Reporters close out final quotes and hit "save" one more time as they milk the last few minutes of their deadlines. Editors tighten up wordy phrases and pore over each letter, ensuring printed stories will run without error the next day.

But Monday wasn't a typical day at the Post. At 4:15 p.m., a company-wide email blasted onto every employee's screen — they had just 15 minutes to make their way into a football-field-sized meeting room for a surprise meeting. Deadlines be damned.

By now most Washington Post staffers are accustomed to this sinking feeling of an impending announcement that will no doubt shake up the company. Since 2002, the paper has undergone big changes in management, on both the editorial and business sides. It has weathered multiple rounds of buyouts, restructures and even closed its staff cafeteria.

The 135-year-old publication hasn't been suffering growing pains — it's been coming to terms with death.

So, as people filed into the cavernous hall, they speculated in whispers. Perhaps the Post sold the building. Or maybe the paper was once again narrowing its coverage. Even worse, could there be another round of layoffs?

There in the center of the room stood an even more ominous sight: a resolute Don Graham.

"Don't tweet. Don't share this info. Just listen to me," he said. And with that, he choked back tears as he parted with the publication that had been under his family's control for decades. Jeff Bezos, who wasn't present at the meeting, was now the proud, new owner of The Washington Post .

Graham opened the floor for questions, but only a few hands crept into the air. The half-hour meeting ended in a massive round of applause, but it wasn't for Bezos — it was for the man who had tried everything he could to keep the Post's heart beating.

Once the sale was public on Monday, other outlets swarmed in on Post journalists, more specifically, the ones tweeting seemingly negative reactions to the news. However, religion reporter Michelle Boorstein says staffers weren't necessarily mad — they were devastated that, despite all signs pointing this direction, an era had come to an end.

"A lot of people, including myself, were in tears because we love Don," Boorstein tells me over the phone Tuesday afternoon. "His presence in the newsroom is huge. People adore him [...] the vast majority of people here trust him."

It's that trust in Graham, a warm-hearted, attentive man who sometimes dons dorky sweaters, that may get the paper through the next year as Bezos takes the financial helm. Graham had been looking for someone who had both the technological expertise and the money to push the company to a new level, stop the hemorrhage and save its life. By those accounts, Bezos fits that mold.

"I think people are excited about it, but [we've gone through] this never-ending change," Boorstein says. "It hasn't been nearly as demoralizing as other papers, but it has been uncertain. I think people are excited about the financial stability."

Nearly 24 hours since the purchase, staffers have slept on the news, and the dust has started to settle. Now, the focus turns to what's next. Bezos promised not to cut salaries or bonus opportunities for any employee over the next year. But what does the Amazon co-founder and CEO, who purchased the publication as an individual, have in store for The Washington Post?

"[Bezos] doesn't have, as far as we know, an interest in meddling in the ethics of our stories," Boorstein said. "That doesn't seem to be his interest. He doesn't seem to have an agenda."

However, Bezos, who also has a $5 million stake in Business Insider, heads a company that doesn't hesitate to slap ads in your face. Whereas The Washington Post shies away from running ads on the paper's front page. While Boorstein admits the staff recognizes the current model doesn't work, she says there's definitely trepidation about the idea of mingling advertising with editorial.

That was topic of conversation in a newsroom staff meeting with Executive Editor Martin Baron just after lunch on Tuesday. However, despite their own concerns with conflict of interest, Boorstein says the mood was "jovial." That's because businessman Bezos has a clean slate with the editorial side, but that doesn't mean staffers will let Bezos into their inner circle on day one. The billionaire will still have to win over the paper's wary older siblings, like Gene Weingarten.

In an open letter to his new boss, the Post columnist recounted a story from his time at Tropic, The Miami Herald's magazine, in 1982 when the publisher pushed for the magazine to run a cover story about the winners of the Knight Silver award. While it may sound like a seemingly innocent feature, that event had something in common with The Miami Herald: the owners. It was an indisputable conflict of interest. The editors pushed back and won without punishment, but it didn't come without bellyaching from the publisher.

Coincidentally, a young Bezos was among the winners of that award, but that's not why Weingarten dug up an anecdote from more than 30 years ago. This story is a parable: Give us freedom, and, in return, we'll give you great journalism.

Here’s the thing: We were right to decline that story, Jeff, but, more to the point, our publisher was wise to LET us decline. In the next 10 years, freed to robustly experiment with an outsize personality, Tropic would develop a fanatic following in Miami, and our writers and photographers would win two Pulitzers and be finalists for two more. That happened because the people above us trusted us, if grudgingly, and — more important — had our backs.

Despite his frank, keep-off-our-turf letter, even the seasoned Weingarten sees the glass half full. Bezos, whose investment portfolio reads like an adventure novel, is an innovator.

At age 49, Bezos is worth more than $28 billion, and he didn't get there by throwing money at dying ventures. Bezos believes the Post isn't an elderly publication on death's door. Perhaps most importantly, he says the paper's duty will remain to its readers.

That's what Graham is banking on as well, and in the end, it all comes down to the staff's trust in him, trust that their beloved leader wouldn't sell out his family to someone who would take advantage of one of the world's biggest platforms.

And for now, that trust will have to suffice as the only familiar thing to which the staff can cling until September — when their new owner will make his trip to 1150 15th Street.

Image: KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images

Topics: acquisition, amazon, Business, jeff bezos, journalism, journalists, Media, newspapers, the washington post, washington post company