Washington Post Marketing Ploy Implodes
02 July 2009 2:43 pm by Taylor Marsh
I’ve been watching this unravel since it was announced, waiting for the cancellation of this horrific idea, because otherwise I was going to quit my subscription and never rely on the WP again. Howard Kurtz has Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth’s comments on the matter, but also some of the gory details.
The fliers, circulated by the paper’s parent company, offering an “intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth.” The fliers, which said participants would be charged $25,000 to sponsor a single salon and $250,000 to underwrite an annual series of 11 sessions, were reported this morning by Politico. … One such flier said: “Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders . . . Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it.” That flier said a July 21 session would involve “Health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post . . . An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done.”
This horrendously embarrassing episode follows many other twists that has the Post turning itself inside out to remake itself into something no one should embrace. Of course, I’m talking about the sharp right turn of the op-eds that have turned up on a daily basis as if they’re trying to compete with Bill Kristol’s group.
In trying to save themselves they’ve succeeded in shooting themselves in the masthead.
