Karen Dunlap: What do you like for when you hire or promote? What are the qualities that you look for?
Katharine Weymouth: I look for a track record. I look for what they’ve done. And for people who are open and will listen. It really is a track record. And sometimes you take a bet, right? And sometimes you’re wrong.
We just promoted somebody who just turned 30 this year. He is our chief revenue officer and our digital GM. We’re taking a big bet on him, it’s a really big job, but every single job he has held he has knocked it out of the park. So it doesn’t matter if he’s 30 or 60, he’s great. I love to give him the job.
When you made that change it involved a number of position changes. What is that like for you? Are these things that you angst over or are you getting good recommendations from others? How do you make those decisions?
Weymouth: You angst over it because there are people involved, right? And in this case it was triggered because Goli Sheikholeslami, our digital GM decided to leave.
But really, I find it really exciting, because I feel like — and in this case what it really was was I — one of the things I spent the last two years doing was integrating our print operation and our digital operation, which were literally separate companies, separated by the Potomac River.
It made a lot of sense when the Internet was brand new, but didn’t make sense after 10 or 15 years. So I wanted us to get to a place where we are a news organization focused on publishing journalism on multiple platforms, with digital experts and print experts where it makes sense.
So this is sort of another step toward that. We actually finally, officially integrated into one company January 1st of this year. So it’s another step in that. So it’s exciting in the sense that I feel like we’re getting some motion and we have amazingly talented people and we’re really lucky to have those people.
I mentioned a difficulty, a challenged you faced. I haven’t asked, what have you been particularly proud of or pleased about? Is there anything that stands out that particularly pleased you?
Weymouth: Yeah, and I think it’s that everyone in our building is proud of. It’s everybody from the security guards to the electricians. And it’s our journalism.
We’re lucky to work at a company where we’re not making widgets, and no offense to widget makers, but every day and now 24 hours a day, you get to see our journalism and you see how it impacts lives and companies and the government. And that is why we all work there.
Let me congratulate you on your journalism and we appreciate it. At Poynter, we appreciate it. One way it’s measured is through the Pulitzer Prizes and I want to commend you for those that you have won. In fact, I think there might be some Washington Post Pulitzer Prize winners in the room.
Weymouth: Right over there, Anne Hull.
Anne Hull. Our trustee. Anne, do you have a question?
Weymouth: Way to put her on the spot.
Anne Hull: I guess I am very lucky to work at The Washington Post. When young journalists ask me, ‘Where should I work?’ I always have two answers. One, it’s, ‘Where your values are aligned and where you can be a great journalist.’ But it’s also, ‘Who’s making money?’ or ‘Who’s successful?’ You can’t do good journalism these days without a financial space above you to create that room.
And that’s why Don and Katharine have — are a place young journalists want to end up. Because you can still do good, original journalism there. Otherwise known as ‘content.’ But I like to refer to it as journalism.
Way to ask the boss a question, Anne. Is there a question in that?
Hull: My favorite time at The Washington Post in the 10 years I’ve been there is the day after President Obama was elected. Not because Obama was elected, but because there was a line of thousands of people wrapped around our building. And it was unbelievable, just to see cabbies and school teachers and people standing in line to get an extra copy.
Katharine, for you, is there an emotional moment since you took over that reminds you that, gosh, this is why we do what we do?
Weymouth: Yeah, and for me, actually, one of my favorite things to do — and it was Don’s and my grandmother’s — is to go to watch the presses run at night.
The world is changing, I don’t know whether we’ll have printed newspapers in 10 years or whatever, but to feel the presses start to hum, and to watch them come off, is just, it’s really amazing.
We call it, in our industry, ‘the daily miracle,’ and it is. So, I think for me it’s those moments.
Is that a contradiction for someone who has been celebrating the innovations of the Internet?
Weymouth: I celebrate it all. And I am a print person, by training and habit, and so I think we have to embrace all the new technology and it has given us a lot, but there is still something amazing to me about the printed newspaper.
