Katharine Weymouth, Publisher of The Washington Post sent out a company wide email yesterday, titled “The Road Forward.”
Here’s an excerpt:
To expand our revenue base and diversify our business model, we must look for opportunities to create new products, especially in the areas where business and policy intersect. These may include the hosting of specialized conferences for business decision makers with a stake in Washington policy-making, and the development of premium subscription products for business clients.
…we must make fundamental changes to our business culture. We must focus better on what the consumer indicates they want, and be less quick to emphasize only what we think is important. We must create a nimble, high-performance culture. And we must realign our cost structure to match this strategy. This realignment of our cost structure must be fast. The decline in our revenue base, particularly in classified advertising, requires decisive action. But cutting our cost structure must be done in a way that protects our brand, and lays the foundation for future growth.
Weymouth says a lot in just these two paragraphs. She touches on corporate culture, creating new “products,” changes in editorial direction and cost cutting all in a few breaths. Welcome to the helm of a big media company today.
Readers may know that Weymouth is the granddaughter and namesake of long-time Washington Post chairwoman and publisher Katharine Graham. She’s also the niece of Talking Heads bass player, Tina Weymouth.
[via Politico.com]
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