Bittersweet!
That was the immediate thought of long-time Washington Post staffer Sally Quinn (Washington Post columnist) when asked to reflect on the final day in the Washington Post newsroom on Wednesday.
If you were to pop your head into the door of the Washington Post at 1150 15th St. NW today-all you’ll find are movers preparing to move to the Post’s new home at One Franklin Square, three blocks away.
Except for a few in the new offices today, most Post staffers are working remotely from home until Monday, when the official transition takes place.
The old building, which was home to the Washington Post since 1972, just a few months before the Watergate scandal, will be demolished next year to make way for a new development, anchored by the new headquarters for Fannie Mae.
According to written accounts and Twitter feeds, Wednesday was an emotional day inside the Post newsroom with a number of moving speeches delivered by Marc Fisher (the emcee) Marty Weil (50 years at Post!), Karen DeYoung, Marcus Brauchli, Bob Woodward, Len Downie, Don Graham, Fred Ryan and Marty Baron, executive editor of the Post.
The Washington Post was founded in 1877, and since its inception, it has earned 47 Pulitzer Prizes., including six separate Pulitzers awarded in 2008, the second-highest number ever given to a single newspaper in one year.
Former Washington Post investigative reporter Carl Bernstein was on hand to pay his final respects to his old stomping ground.
I was able to obtain the full transcript of the remarks Bernstein delivered in the newsroom during its tearful farewell, his farewell to “a true national treasure, a sacred treasure, the Washington Post,'' including the shocking revelation for the first time of his “third-rate burglary '' inside the Post's newsroom.
Carl Bernstein on the Washington Post…..
- “When Jeff Bezos bought the Post I said, “I have high hopes that today’s announcement will represent a great moment in the history of a great institution''
- “Today, it’s working… What's been accomplished since then both substantively –Journalistically–and Commercially, under Jeff Bezos and Marty Baron's vision, is the talk of the news trade. ''
- …“And most important, day-in day-out the home page of the Washington Post today is now a unique model and example of where a great, exciting and enticing journalistic mix might be heading in the digital era…. including a great, healthy rivalry and competition with the New York Times which the Post has surpassed now in digital subscriptions.''
- “What we are seeing now is about continuity …. of what's always been best about the Post going back to the paper of Phil and then Kay Graham and before that don’s grandfather Eugene Meyer. ''
- “When we moved into this building in 1972 and it was joined with the old post building on L Street, –this was several months before Watergate-—I took a souvenir of the old post newsroom with me. Petty larceny, I guess. so on that day when we moved into these precincts now being vacated today, I took a screwdriver and unbolted this sign on the door to the newsroom…. and it has been in my office since. So I'm returning it today to its rightful owners, and hope it finds a place in the new newsroom of yet another era in post's history.’’
- “Glorious history that continues– and as we leave this place today, recognize that, like this sign and where it was bolted to the door from another day and era that we outgrew, that this is not a day for sadness but another historic turn into another great era of a true national treasure, a sacred treasure, the Washington Post.’’
Washington Post Milestones
1947: The Washington Post Co. is incorporated Aug. 4. Philip Graham, husband of Eugene Meyer's daughter, Katharine — is named president, a position he holds until his death in 1963
1963: Katharine Graham becomes president of The Washington Post Co. after the death of her husband, Philip Graham.
1968: Benjamin C. Bradlee is named executive editor of The Washington Post.
1972: Alfred E. Lewis, staff writer for The Washington Post, first reported on the break-in at the Democratic National headquarters on June 18, 1972. http://goo.gl/qLt1fV
June 19, 1972: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein publish their first article on the Watergate affair, in which they name former CIA employee James W. McCord as being a salaried security coordinator for President Nixon’s reelection committee. http://goo.gl/Bv9AGt
1972: The Post dedicates a new $25 million building at 1150 15th St. NW. It is given its own Zip code: 20071.
April 8, 1976: Vincent Canby, in his review in The New York Times of All the President's Men, wrote of the film: “The manners and methods of big-city newspapering, beautifully detailed, contribute as much to the momentum of the film as the mystery that's being uncovered. Maybe even more, since the real excitement of "All The President's Men" is in watching two comparatively inexperienced reporters stumble onto the story of their lives and develop it triumphantly, against all odds.’’ http://goo.gl/82AzAm
1976: Donald E. Graham, Katharine Graham’s son, is appointed executive vice president and general manager of the newspaper.
1979: Donald Graham becomes publisher of The Post, succeeding Katharine Graham, who retains her positions of chairman of the board and chief executive of The Washington Post Co.
1991: Donald Graham is named chief executive officer of The Washington Post Co., while remaining publisher of the Washington Post newspaper.
1991: Benjamin C. Bradlee retires as executive editor of The Post in September. Leonard Downie Jr. is named his successor.
1996 Washingtonpost.com is launched.
2008: Katharine Weymouth is named chief executive of Washington Post Media (The Washington Post, Express and El Tiempo Latino) and publisher of The Washington Post.
2008: Leonard Downie Jr. steps down as executive editor of The Post. Marcus Brauchli is named his successor.
2013: Martin Baron becomes executive editor of The Post in January, succeeding Marcus Brauchli.
2013: Amazon founder Jeffrey Bezos buys The Post and affiliated publications and formally takes over as the owner of The Washington Post on Oct. 1, 2013.
Note: Beginning in November of 1979, full-text articles of the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, the Economist, the Associated Press, and Reuters were made available through Lexis Nexis.
Note: Senator Al Gore, while chairing the Senate subcommittee on science technology and space, advocated building a new nationwide network for storing computer information in a July 15, 1990 Washington Post article. Gore wrote that the network had the potential of reaching into homes and "providing anyone with a personal computer access to a whole universe of electronic information."
Source: The Washington Post
–Bill Lucey
December 10, 2015
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