By Michael Calderone

The Washington Post plans on rolling out its iPad app “in the coming weeks,” following major papers like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal in creating a product for the Apple device.

Ken Babby, the Post’s chief revenue officer and general manager for Washington Post Digital, announced (in a staff email obtained by The Upshot) the formation of a mobile leadership team and its plans to launch the “highly anticipated” iPad app.

“Mobile continues to be a key distribution platform for our content, utility for our readers, and, a core enabler of our growing digital business,” wrote Babby on Wednesday, adding that “usage of the Post’s iPhone app continues to accelerate.”

Babby announced that the new leadership team includes former AOL executive Beth Jacobs as general manager for mobile and the Post’s Neil Quinn as director for mobile commercial products. Babby said the Post’s News side will name a director of mobile news products in the coming weeks.

To read more click here.

Filed under: Guild News | No Comments »

By Ken Doctor

The Washington Post Company has been much in the news recently, but not because of its flagship paper. It’s making news around its other holdings.

It has shed Newsweek, staunching a $30 million annual bleed. More importantly to the company’s finances, its Kaplan “subsidiary” has been much in the spotlight, under investigation by the feds, along with other for-profit educators, for fraud around student loans.

Those inquiries have rocked The Washington Post Co.’s share price, sending it to a year-to-date low.

The Post’s case has also refocused public attention on how much the company is dependent on Kaplan revenues.

Those revenues now amount to 62 percent of revenues, and 67 percent of profits. It became clear to even those who hadn’t been watching closely that the Post was more an education company than a newspaper one, though the family ownership of the Grahams clearly intend to use that positioning to protect and sustain the flagship paper.

To read more click here.

Filed under: Guild News | No Comments »

News outlets that accompany the president spent 35% less on travel in 2009 than in 2008, according to a White House travel office memo sent to reporters Thursday, which claims the decrease came about during an increase in the number of journalists traveling with the president.

“2009 resulted in a 35% reduction in annual press travel expenditures (from $17.8m in 2008 to $11.6m in 2009), including a 21% reduction in ground costs and a 48% reduction in telecommunications fees, despite a 42% increase in journalists traveling with the Obama Administration. Air Expenses eased in 2009 partially as a result of significantly lower costs of oil and a greater supply of aircraft availability,” the memo from Travel Office Director Peter Newell stated.

“Ground Expenses include buses, workspace, power, and catering. Telecommunications fees refer to wireless internet in work areas, press pool holds, and event sites. A spirit of negotiation, frugality, and common sense helped identify significant cost reductions.”

To read more click here.

Filed under: Guild News | No Comments »

By Frank Ahrens

WASHINGTON – Iconic but troubled Newsweek magazine has been sold by one Washington power family to another.

Washington philanthropist, education innovator and hi-fidelity stereo pioneer Sidney Harman will buy Newsweek from The Washington Post Co., the company said Monday, three months after Post Co. Chairman Donald E. Graham admitted that his company could not lead the struggling newsweekly back to profitability.

The Post Co. did not release the sale price of Newsweek. The cash component of the purchase is minimal, but the total obligations taken on by Harman — assuming leases, satisfying subscribers who have already paid to receive the magazine — run into the tens of millions of dollars, according to a source close to the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Post Co. will continue to pay the Newsweek staffers’ pensions.

Filed under: Guild News | No Comments »

Guild member Nancy Trejos kicked off the Washington Post Newspaper Guild’s new Outreach program with a book signing at Caribou Coffee down the street from the paper.

The program has been created to promote the talents of its members and raise the profile of the Guild. Future events will include more book signings and shows for Guild members to display paintings or photographs.

At the July 21st event, Trejos, a long-standing Guild member,  talked about her book “Hot (broke) Messes: How to Have Your Latte and Drink It, Too” and what prompted her to write on the subject — personal finance — at a time she was struggling with her own personal finances.

Trejos, a veteran Post reporter, has worked over the years at the paper in the Metro section,  the Baghdad bureau, the Real Estate section and the Business section. She is currently a travel writer.

Filed under: Guild News | No Comments »