Washington Post Demise Speculation Premature

Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher, BuzzFlash.com, has an essay speculating on the Washington Post company getting out of the news business. A bit premature we think. Although some think the WaPo ceased providing news and investigating reporting some time ago, and is a mere repeater of talking points, there is still a little bit of money to be made for the corporation. Not to mention the ability to use the paper as a way of currying favor for whichever party is in power. Corporations do know how to take care of themselves after all.

As BuzzFlash has regularly noted, the primary problem with corporate mainstream media news is that the parent corporations are big businesses and everyone in the corporate culture knows who butters the bread of the corporate bottom line, who gives the company tax breaks, who allows media mergers, who provides anti-trust exemptions, etc. And with the decline in value of the media side operations of large parent corporations, the news divisions are cut even further, leading to more press release pro-administration journalism, anything not to offend Republican administrations who can have a positive or disastrous effect on corporate profitability based on legislation and regulatory rulings. And remember, we are talking about how a vengeful White House -- or Republican Party in Congress and Republican judges -- can impact ALL the corporate holdings, not just the media side of the companies.

The WP article revealed, "In 2006, the newspaper division reported $63 million in operating income, and it looks to be on pace to approximate that number this year. By comparison, in 1989, the newspaper division had $176 million in operating income. Kaplan, meanwhile, showed a 21 percent revenue gain through the first nine months of this year, compared with the similar period in 2006."

So, will the Washington Post newspaper shut down anytime soon? That’s highly unlikely in the short-term. Should it be thrown overboard, the Graham family and the corporate board would first, no doubt, try to seek an outside buyer for the media division, which includes Newsweek. There is no doubt a great deal of Graham family pride in the once courageous and venerable newspaper. But the question is who would buy an economically nose diving newspaper at this point? And one that has developed a schizophrenic news and editorial perspective to boot?