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2013 ANNUAL REPORT | 11
news business. He won’t. But it means, I think,
the best possible chance for long-term success
for the Post. The Post has to innovate, and to
be smart and patient in doing so. Our values
mustn’t change. But our course has to.
The Post needs Je. But he also needs you.
And here, I want to say a word about my long-
time colleagues all over the building, especially
in the newsroom.
The future of news starts with news. Then it
involves technology. If you ask what a guy like
Je Bezos needs from a company like this one,
I would answer in two words: Roz Helderman.
Or, I could say David Fahrenthold or Eli Saslow
or Nikita Stewart or Karen DeYoung or Tom
Boswell—but I’ll stick with Roz. No one knew
before Roz started her reporting a few weeks
ago that the governor of Virginia and his fam-
ily had taken thousands of dollars in gifts
from a businessman. She met the challenge
to good reporters: tell me something I don’t
know, and make it something important. Her
stories have changed national and local life as
so many reporters have done before her. Many
here, some gone: Kate Boo, Je Leen and Sari
Horwitz. Anne Hull and Dana Priest. And, ok,
Woodward and Bernstein.
And, what Je needs is more than reporters. I am
pleased that he has asked Katharine Weymouth,
Marty Baron, Steve Hills, Fred Hiatt and the rest
of the team to stay in their places, running the
Post. This gives me a chance to thank Katharine.
As the Post fell to tens of millions of dollars in
losses in 2009, I wasn’t sure the paper could be
profitable again soon. She and her outstanding
team brought it back to cash-flow profitability
the next year, and it remains there, making your
job and Je’s far easier.
As I look out into this room, the faces I see are
not only yours. I’m thinking as well of your pre-
decessors of the past 30 or 40 years, whom I
also knew so well. I have loved working with
you—those who are world famous for your
writing and those who run the presses, sell the
ads, deliver the papers.
I honestly think today may turn out to be a cru-
cially good day for the Post. I would be the last
to deny, however, that there’s also a sense of
disappointment. There’s only one person I’m
disappointed in—myself. I wanted to solve the
Post’s problems and wish I had. No one ever
had braver, better, more devoted colleagues.
Every day, for the rest of my life, I will read you
and cheer for you.
But we are leaving you with managers and
editors I know are excellent and with a family
owner who will, for the future, be as good for
the Post as anyone in the world.