| Page 2 of 2 < |
Post Co. Names Weymouth Media Chief and Publisher
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Weymouth is divorced, has three children and lives in the District. She is a niece of Tina Weymouth, the bass guitarist in the new wave band Talking Heads.
The Post, like most newspapers, has been hit hard by declining circulation and advertising revenue, which is migrating to other media, especially the Web. Though ad revenue has increased in recent years at washingtonpost.com, it has declined sharply at the newspaper.
In The Post Co.'s third-quarter 2007 earnings, the most recent to be made public, operating income at the newspaper division was down 50 percent compared to the comparable quarter in 2006, as ad revenue dropped 13 percent at The Post.
"Our shareholders have long understood that we, at The Washington Post, build for the long term," Weymouth said. "Last year, we were hard hit, as were other newspapers, by both local economic factors as well as by the migration of advertising from print to other media, particularly in the classifieds."
Shares of Post Co. stock closed up $1.02 at $758.14 per share yesterday.
Washington Post Media is designed to forge a closer relationship between the business and advertising functions of The Post newspaper and washingtonpost.com, while maintaining separate newsrooms and editorial decision-making. (The Post's newsroom is in the District, the Web site's is in Arlington.)
In the new division, Caroline Little, publisher of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), Post President Stephen P. Hills and Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. will report to Weymouth, who will report to Graham.
Although relations between the paper and the Web site have been difficult at times, Downie said that is changing.
"The two newsrooms have been working increasingly closely together, as can be seen most recently in coverage of the presidential election campaign in the paper and on the Web site," he said.
"Our unique organization of the last 11 years, with The Post and WPNI reporting separately to me, has been my doing," Graham said at yesterday's meeting. "I apologize to those of you who have been frustrated by this organization, and that has been all of you; its results have been my defense. But everyone on both sides of the river, including Caroline [Little], has now told me to change it somewhat, and I am doing so."
The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, which represents several hundred Post employees, said it is looking forward to examining the terms of the buyout. The Post's newsroom has slightly fewer than 785 full-time equivalent staffers, down from a peak of 908 in 2003.
"The Guild is concerned that the ongoing shrinkage of the newsroom may lead to a decline in the quality of journalism here," said Rick Weiss, a science reporter for The Post and a co-chairman of the Guild's Post unit. "But to the extent that cutbacks are necessitated, we're proud that the union contract here, which protects workers against layoffs, pushes the company down the path of offering voluntary buyouts."
At the College Park plant, nearly 70 of the employees are non-union press operators. The remaining 180 workers are represented by five unions.
Communications Workers of America Local 14201 represents between 30 and 40 mailers at the College Park plant, and President Mark Pullium expects they will be transferred to the Springfield plant. But that will lead to a shuffling of seniority, and he expects some of his workers to be bumped down to "sub" status, meaning they are not guaranteed a full work week, which can lead to a loss of benefits.
"It kind of turns everything into a mess," said Pullium, whose local has worked without a contract for nearly five years and recently bought bus ads in Washington criticizing Graham. "Now with Bo gone, that's another Graham I'm dealing with," he said, referring to Weymouth.
Mike Murphy, business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers, which represents six workers at the College Park plant, said his union expected the plant's eventual closing. The workers have a seniority clause in their contracts, Murphy said, which means they are likely to be sent to Springfield.
