Washington Post ombud Andy Alexander devoted his August 22 piece to lauding how the paper handles stories about its parent company and its various business entanglements--which, as he explains, are rather extensive. The Washington Post Co. owns Newsweek, several television stations, and the Kaplan company, which runs the for-profit Kaplan University, the subject of recent critical media reports.

As Alexander put it:

The list of Washington Post Co. holdings and interests is extensive, and the relationships are complex. Whenever a news story discusses investment giant Berkshire Hathaway or its chief executive, Warren E. Buffett, it must note that he is a Post Co. board member. Likewise, stories about Facebook must mention that its board includes Post Co. chairman and chief executive Donald E. Graham. Any story about LivingSocial, the consumer-oriented social networking site run by Tim O'Shaughnessy, must disclose that he is Graham's son-in-law.

How have the Post's editors and reporters been able to keep track of these conflicts? Alexander explained that

The Post's newsroom intranet added a list of holdings by the parent Washington Post Co., along with the names and primary business affiliations of its directors. The instructions are clear: "When we write about something that could impact, positively or negatively, one of those interests, we should be as transparent as possible about disclosing those relationships."

At the start of the piece,  Alexander wrote, "I regularly hear from readers deeply suspicious that The Post has concealed a self-interest." Given the array of Post conflicts, that is understandable. So in the interest of disclosure, why not make the Post's newsroom list of holdings and board affiliations public?

Tags: Donald Graham

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Media Business, Washington Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.