Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Washington Post on the Washington Post Co.

Give the Washington Post credit for covering its own bad news, something you will never, ever see happen in the Booth newspaper world.

That is one of my continuing beefs with Booth and a number of other news organizations. They are the first to demand and hound businesses and governments for information on the internal workings, but are pretty shy about covering their own.

Internally, it is just as bad. In a company that makes its living, even if a poor one at present, on requiring transparency by others it is hypocritical to be so private and circumspect about their own failings and problems.

After all, if readers are going to continue to be asked to pay more for the paper, or pay the same for less, then don't they have a right to know where that money is going?

What the Washington Post did in covering its own news was apply a similar standard to its own business as it does to others. That's a good thing.

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