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.

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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.

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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.

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.

As the Washington Post Company prepares to sell Newsweek to the most appealing bidder, it is closely examining an offer from Sidney Harman, the California billionaire who made his fortune selling audio equipment.

According to three people with knowledge of the bidding process, at least two other parties remain in the mix: Fred Drasner, who was a part owner of the Washington Redskins and a publisher of The Daily News of New York, and Marc Lasry, a hedge fund owner and major Democratic Party donor.

At the moment, Mr. Harman’s offer seems likely to appeal most to the Washington Post’s chairman, Donald E. Graham, and the company’s board because it proposes to keep the vast majority of Newsweek’s 325 employees in their jobs, including the magazine’s top management and editors, these people said.

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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.

The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild presents a book signing by Post reporter Nancy Trejos.

Nancy has written a compelling and entertaining book on personal finance:

“Hot (broke) Messes: How to Have Your Latte and Drink it, Too.”

Nancy’s book signing is the first in a series of Guild sponsored events designed to celebrate the talents of its members.

When: Wed., July 21

Where: Caribou Coffee, 15^th & M

Time: 7 p.m.

**We are encouraging all Guild members who wish to have their works – books, paintings, photographs – displayed at a Guild-sponsored event to apply for consideration for this program.

To apply, please contact Freddy Kunkle at kunklef@washpost.com, or Mike Gronowski or at Gronowskim@washpost.com, or other Guild officers.

The University of Maryland Philip Merrill School of Journalism has asked the Newspaper Guild to let Washington Post workers know about its new program — Graduate Certificate Studies in Multimedia Journalism.

The University says classes will focus on digital storytelling across media platforms, particularly the Internet and mobile devices.

The University describes it this way:

“Our new Graduate Certificate of Professional Studies in Multimedia Journalism focuses on the skills most in demand today for communication workers in news organizations, nonprofits, and business.

“Multimedia Journalism blends practical training in video, audio, photography, blogging, and interactive Web publishing with the critical application of editorial, ethical and legal principles in digital media contexts.”

To learn more about the program click here.

Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said it was her idea to have the controversial salons, where lobbyists and association executives would have paid a hefty fee to attend off-the-record dinners with reporters and editors at the Post.  The idea was aborted after there was an uproar in the newsroom.

“I would rather not have done it, but I think it was a great lesson for me and for my team,” she said. “And what I said to people, right when it happened, I said, ‘I apologize. I clearly got this wrong.’”

Her comments came in a recent interview with Poynter President Karen Dunlap, which was posted on PoynterOnline.

Weymouth also said during the hour-long interview that she believes in investing in the newsroom, “but at this point, we just, we have to cut back. We have to have a smaller cost structure, which is not fun, and it’s not glamorous, but in order to sustain the kind of quality journalism we all believe in, we have to do that so we can continue to do it and continue to invest in our journalism. And at the same time, experiment on new platforms.”

Some other highlights of the interview included these remarks:

• “We have a bigger audience than we have ever had. Ninety percent of our page views for WashingtonPost.com come from outside the Washington area, and roughly 10-15 percent of those are international.”
• “For me, actually, one of my favorite things to do — and it was Don’s and my grandmother’s — is to go to watch the presses run at night.  The world is changing, I don’t know whether we’ll have printed newspapers in 10 years or whatever, but to feel the presses start to hum, and to watch them come off, is just, it’s really amazing.”
• “So, the whole world has changed. People are on Craigslist and eBay and Monster and AutoTrader, and you name it. There are a thousand different companies coming after almost every niche we’re in.”
• “I think I would say we are putting out as good if not better journalism than we ever have. And she would be proud of it and proud of the reporters we have, the editors we have and the business people we have. And we are adapting. This is a world where you have to adapt, you have to try new things and she would identify with you have to make mistakes, too. And that’s OK. We’re gonna throw some spaghetti against the wall. Some of it’s gonna work, some of it’s not. We’ve got to learn from those and keep going.”

Read the complete interview

Reader Comments:

From Dan: She deserves a 0 bonus and a 30% cut in pay for the “fine job” she has done – layoffs, a much smaller paper for a higher price, what a legacy.

Dear Ms. Weymouth,

As employees of the Washington Post and members of the Newspaper Guild, we were disappointed to hear that you accepted a bonus of nearly $500,000 at a time when the sacrifices made by so many people who work here — or used to work here — are still fresh.

It was also surprising to learn that you received a 10-percent raise, and that many other top executives were also handsomely rewarded, despite a year that included further job reductions, the closure of the Post’s national bureaus and, for the first time in memory, staff layoffs. This is to say nothing of the highly publicized missteps that called into question the Post’s reputation for journalistic excellence.

If you were to walk the floor of the advertising  department or the newsroom today, you would find vacant desks, darkened computers, and a number of workers who are doing more with less. Their efforts  still ensure that Post customers remain satisfied.  Their efforts win Pulitzer Prizes. Yet few, if any, of these workers have received a bonus, let alone a raise that has kept up with rising costs of living in the Washington metropolitan area.

We recognize that you work hard for this company and that you cherish the legacy that has been entrusted with you as a  member of the family that built the Post into one of America’s finest newspapers. We do not begrudge the fruits of hard work to you or anyone else in the Post’s leadership.

We do hope, however, that in the future you will be generous to all the people who write the stories, shoot the video, sell the ads or deliver the newspaper online or in print to millions of readers.

Yours Truly,

From the Guild Bulletin: Why We Wrote the Letter