Hundreds of journalists who have worked at The Washington Post got together to pay homage to the Graham family and particularly to Donald Graham, who had overseen the newspaper with such distinction for so long.
The phrase "end of an era" is tossed around way too often, but in this case it fits.
The Post became an iconic institution for its defining role in helping to uncover the Watergate scandal. It famously acquired and published the Pentagon Papers after The New York Times was enjoined from doing so. It continued to produce first-rate journalism even as the digital revolution overwhelmed the newspaper industry.
But for all of its glory and grandeur, it was also a family business.
Don Graham, the Washington Post Co. CEO who sold his beloved newspaper to Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in August, knew the names of everybody who worked at the place. And their kids' names. (Disclosure: I worked at the Post in the 1980s as its deputy metro editor.)
The Monday night event in what had once been the Post press room had the feel of a family gathering. Journalists near and far made the pilgrimage to pay tribute to a man, a family and a journalistic treasure.
There was, inevitably, a bittersweet feel to the event. The Post, like newspapers everywhere, has been pummeled in the Internet era. Plummeting advertising led to painful staff cuts, While the paper still does fine work, it's a far cry from what it was at its peak.
In what had to have been an excruciating decision, Graham sold the heirloom his family had owned for 80 years to someone with deeper pockets, someone who would have a better shot at securing its future in a rapidly evolving and brutally challenging media climate.
He sold it to tech billionaire Bezos — he's said to have 25 of those billions — someone who could invest in the paper and try to devise a digital-era survival strategy without worrying so much about the short-term! numbers.
RIEDER: Bezos wows Washington Post staff
There were speeches at the Grahamfest paying deserved tribute to the owning family for what they had achieved. So, yes, there was a program, but not too much of a program. The night was for reconnecting with former colleagues and celebrating what had been.
One highlight was a drop-dead impression of Graham by John Harris, editor in chief of Politico. But there was a bittersweetness to this, as well: Harris and colleague Jim VandeHei had wanted to launch a politics-obsessed website under the aegis of the Post. When the Post demurred, they took their idea to Robert Allbritton. Politico rapidly became a major new-media success.
While Graham was groomed to take over the family business from his legendary mother, Katharine Graham, he was hardly one of those rich kids who wanted everything handed to him. After Harvard, he served in Vietnam while so many of his contemporaries were doing everything they could to stay out of the war. When he came back, he walked the beat as a Washington, D.C., police officer. And when he at last joined the Post in 1971, it wasn't as a big-shot executive but as a sports department staffer.
With his down-to-earth manner and accessibility, the fashion-challenged Graham was the antithesis of the flashy, glamorous leader. Yet, the impact he had on his troops was enormous
The news that Graham was selling the Post came as a shock. But after 42 years at the place, finding himself in a very different journalism world, Graham realized the time had come. Like the David Carradine character in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, he was ready.
"Time and technology changed, and every one of my 1971 heroes has left the newsroom," he told the journalists who had come to honor him. "Now it's time for me to go, too."
And now it's Bezos' turn. There's talk that he'll soon be hiring lots of new reporters to help win the future.
The Washington Post's next act will be fascinating to watch.
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