Posting updates
Of course, we can’t go a day without more from The Washington Post.
In the maybe-it-means-something, maybe-it-doesn’t department, Axios DC’s Mimi Montgomery reports that embattled new publisher and CEO Will Lewis and his wife have purchased a 5,000-square foot, six-bedroom home in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., for more than $7 million.
Some have wondered if Lewis will survive at his job after all the controversies over the past few weeks. Axios didn’t report when the Lewises purchased their home. It may have happened well before all the mess. But I still think Lewis is in the job for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, Axios DC’s Cuneyt Dil reports Lewis and his mostly new leadership team might try something called “Local +” — which Dil, after talking to sources, describes as “a new offering for readers who want to pay extra for premium local content.”
Speaking of the Post …
Former Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan has a new column out for the Guardian US: “Jeff Bezos once saved the Washington Post. Now he needs to do it again.”
Sullivan writes that many, including some inside the Post, think Post owner Jeff Bezos should get rid of Lewis and start over with a new CEO. Sullivan calls that idea the “cleanest, best move.” But she also acknowledges that Bezos likely won’t do that because he doesn’t have a Plan B.
So, what should Bezos do? Sullivan writes, “Several things. He should instruct Lewis to publicly commit to giving the newsroom true editorial independence, pledging not only to the staff but to the public that there is a clear line between the business side and the journalists, and that he won’t breach it again. He should reinstate the role of independent ombudsman or public editor — one that the Post maintained for many years but abandoned in 2013 — to provide transparency and accountability to readers.”
She was quick to add that she doesn’t want the job of public editor, even though she once was the public editor of The New York Times.
“And,” Sullivan writes, “though he has not commented publicly, Bezos should do so now — making clear his personal and unwavering support for accountability-oriented journalism independent from the business side of the company.”
In his latest newsletter for Puck, Dylan Byers reports Lewis has been described as “more contrite” in an internal meeting at the Post.
Remembering a journalism giant
Howard Fineman, a longtime political writer for Newsweek and TV commentator, has died. He was 75. His son said Fineman died of pancreatic cancer.
Fineman started his career in the 1970s at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, before moving on to Newsweek, where he worked for nearly 30 years. He also appeared regularly on TV, including on PBS, MSNBC and CNBC. He even appeared on shows such as “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.”
The New York Times’ Clay Risen wrote, “He was part of what might be called the post-post-Watergate generation of journalists. No longer directly fired by the scrappy, crusading spirit of the young Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Mr. Fineman and his cohort brought a polished professionalism to their task matched with a dogged ambition that fit the Ronald Reagan era in Washington. It was a more collegial time, both between political parties and between them and the news media. Mr. Fineman soon gained renown as one of the fastest and most productive reporters, able to work sources for the sort of slow, steady drip of scoops that define success among Washington journalists.”
The Washington Post’s Emily Langer wrote, “Mr. Fineman delivered a steady supply of cover stories for Newsweek about the major political figures of the day and the forces, seen or unseen, that sent the political winds in one direction or another.”
Risen’s recap of Fineman’s career and life is a good one, as is Langer’s story. So check them out.
Death of a legend
