When was The Washington Post founded and who founded it?
The Washington Post was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins. It added a Sunday edition in 1880, making it the first newspaper in Washington, D.C. to publish seven days a week.
Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Washington Post was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins. It added a Sunday edition in 1880, making it the first newspaper in Washington, D.C. to publish seven days a week.
Financier Eugene Meyer purchased The Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction on the 1st of June 1933 for $825,000, three weeks after stepping down as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He bid anonymously and was prepared to pay up to $2 million, far above any other bidder, including William Randolph Hearst.
Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, backed by executive editor Ben Bradlee, published a long series of articles that exposed the connections behind the 1972 burglary of Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex. Their coverage contributed to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974 and won the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post in August 2013 through Nash Holdings LLC, his private investment company. The building the Post had long occupied at 1150 15th Street NW was sold separately by Graham Holdings for $159 million in November 2013.
CEO and publisher William Lewis announced eleven days before the 2024 election that the Post would not endorse a candidate, the first such decision since 1988. Sources familiar with the situation stated that the editorial board had drafted an endorsement for Kamala Harris but that it was blocked by owner Jeff Bezos. More than 250,000 subscribers, roughly ten percent of the total, cancelled in the wake of the announcement.
The Washington Post has won 76 Pulitzer Prizes, placing it second only to The New York Times among American newspapers. Washington Post journalists have also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards.