Washington Post 2006 Annual Report Download - page 14

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The Washington Post Company
12
good advice over 35 years, our corporate lot in life would
be far harder.One of the wisest and most helpful, George
Wilson, chairman of Newspapers of New England, will
retire from the board this spring.
Our corporate staff went through a major change as our
general counsel, Diana Daniels, who steered us through
the legal shoals since 1989, retired (Diana was an out-
standing attorney at Newsweek before then). Veronica
Dillon, formerly executive vice president, chief administra-
tive officer and chief legal officer at Kaplan, succeeds her.
Finally, a few familiar words to shareholders and to those
thinking of buying the stock.
Our management tries to focus on growing the per-share
value of The Washington Post Company over the long
term. Management does not focus at all on quarterly
results; if you do, you shouldn’t own our stock. We’ll will-
ingly take actions that produce poor published results in a
quarter, a year or several years if those actions will build
a more valuable company for our shareholders.
Our focus on increasing intrinsic value in the long term
has an important qualifier: We believe in publishing a high-
quality Washington Post and Newsweek. The newspaper’s
and the magazine’s staffs both understand (and history has
proven) that they must be successful businesses in order to
maintain quality. But we believe in the importance of what
these businesses do, and we believe that to some degree
better journalism will also result in a better long-run business.
Ican do no better than to quote Kay Graham one more
time (this from the S-1 we published when the company
went public): “The Washington Post has the reputation of
being an outspoken observer of local, national and world
events. The management of the Company and the editorial
staff of The Post have historically placed great emphasis on
the newspaper’s public responsibilities, as expressed in the
Company’s Certificate of Incorporation which states that it
is the Company’s purpose ‘to publish any newspaper
owned by the Company as an independent newspaper
dedicated to the welfare of the community and the nation
in keeping with the principles of a free press.’”
Donald E. Graham
Chairman of the Board
Chief Executive Officer
February 23, 2007
General counsel Veronica Dillon with
Don Graham