Donald E. Graham - The Post

The Post

Eugene Meyer, Graham's maternal grandfather, bought The Washington Post at a bankruptcy sale in 1933. Graham's father was publisher of The Washington Post from 1946 until 1961 and president of the Washington Post Company from 1947 until his death in 1963. Graham's mother, Katharine, was the head of The Washington Post newspaper for more than two decades, overseeing its most famous period, the Watergate coverage that helped bring down President Richard Nixon. She has been widely described as one of the most powerful American women of the 20th century.

In 1971, Graham joined The Washington Post as a reporter, and went on to hold various news and business positions at the Post and Newsweek (until 2010, owned by The Washington Post Company).

He was elected to the board of the company in September 1974 and was made executive vice president and general manager of the Post in 1976. Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1979, succeeding his mother, who retained her corporate positions of chairman of the board and CEO of The Washington Post Company. The Company owns the newspaper, as well as the educational services provider Kaplan, Inc., Post-Newsweek Stations, Cable One, Slate magazine, and other smaller companies. Donald Graham became CEO in 1991 and chairman of the company in May 1993, while Katharine Graham assumed the position of chairman of the executive committee of the Washington Post Company.

In 1994, Graham was responsible for “a heavy blow to the newspaper’s credibility” (WaPo ombudsman on October 9, 1994), when he successfully lobbied Senator John Danforth for a special provision, favoring Washington Post Co.'s cell phone holdings, in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) treaty. A Washington Post editorial had described the treaty as including "no surprises,", igniting heavy criticism from rival companies. The Washington Post had to apologize and Graham later said about the conspericy: “In hindsight, there should have been an editorial that mentioned this provision in the GATT treaty. We clearly should have done that.” He also offered an insight into the difficult balance between the interests of the newspaper and that of the holding company: “We run a business and make no apologies for the fact that we try to run it well.”

In September 2000, Graham was elected chairman of the newspaper and passed the position of publisher to Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr.