Opinion: "where there's an audience, there are advertisers," with WaPo publisher Katherine Weymouth

Posted by Sarah Schewe on July 23, 2008 at 8:15 AM

Bob Garfield, of NPR's On the Media, recently interviewed Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth. Below follows an edited transcript of her interview where she discusses how long the Washington Post will keep appearing on your doorstep, talent in the newsroom, and reading the Washington Post on Kindle.

BOB GARFIELD: Understanding that the Web is still in its infancy, nobody has figured out yet how to make any money there, at least any substantial money. The slogan I hear so often is we have the audience, all we need is a business model. Do you have any hope... that any such business model will emerge?

KATHARINE WEYMOUTH: I do have hope. I mean, I think it's a very different business from the newspaper... (but) in general, where there's an audience, there are advertisers that want to reach that audience.

BOB GARFIELD: I wonder about The Post's path as a great newspaper. For how long can we assume that the paper that I get on my doorstep every morning is going to be The Washington Post as I've come to expect it?

KATHARINE WEYMOUTH: We still have 700 people in this newsroom, give or take 100 people. I think if you said to me, take 800 incredibly talented journalists and put out a terrific newspaper and a great website and a great mobile product, that we can do that and that we do, do that.

We certainly lost a lot of colleagues, and we were sorry to see them go, but we still have incredible talent.

BOB GARFIELD: Katharine, I'm given to low level depression. Tell me something, anything [LAUGHS] about your first six months on the job that will make me feel better about the journalism world I live in.

KATHARINE WEYMOUTH: I guess I think there's a lot of hope, right? I mean, you know, 600 odd thousand people every single day buy our paper, and that's the actual physical copy.

We have 9 million unique visitors every month on the Web. You know, my daughter, who's eight, is reading books on the Kindle. And I went on vacation a week ago and I took the Kindle with me, because I couldn't get The Washington Post, and I read The Washington Post every day on the Kindle.

I mean, I think the world is changing. But we've seen movies go through this, we're seeing music go through this. Other industries have evolved and survived to see another day, and I think we will be one of them.

Source: Poynter