经典回顾(节选)：《华盛顿邮报》的崛起（1944年）

    编者按：每周日，《财富》杂志（Fortune）都会从往期文章中精选出一篇最受读者欢迎的文章。本周，我们选取的是发表于1944年的一篇特写，记述了《华盛顿邮报》的进化史，回顾了位于华盛顿特区的这份优质新闻源在几个时代中的变迁。2013年8月5日，华盛顿邮报集团宣布，将旗下旗舰报纸和几份地方报纸以2.5亿美元的价格出售给了亚马逊公司首席执行官杰夫•贝佐斯，至此，这家有着辉煌历史的报纸又掀开了全新的篇章。

    奥斯瓦德•加里森•维拉德是一位孜孜不倦的美国报业批评家。20世纪初，他完成了对华盛顿地区报业的调查之后，用了一个短语作为结论：这是一个没有一份像《泰晤士报》（Thunderer，《泰晤士报》外号——译注）这样报纸的首都。他认为华盛顿的报纸要么“懦弱”，要么“粗鄙”，无法满足民众对于首都地区新闻报道的需求，他们不得不转而去购买在纽约、费城、甚至是巴尔的摩出版的日报。维拉德除了表示对华盛顿报业现状的失望之外，他还质疑“是否能在有生之年看到华盛顿能拥有一份真正的全国性报纸”。

    最近，维拉德先生再次调查华盛顿报业最近的状况之后，他发现情况已经大为改观。这片曾经的“报业荒漠”如今却有了“一份这座城市真正为之骄傲和自豪的报纸，这份报纸的影响力与日俱增，已经成为美国总统、国会议员以及高级官员们每日必读的刊物”。它已经超出了一份报纸的范畴，赢得了“报人们由衷地尊敬……还为国家福祉做出了杰出的贡献”。此前，没有任何一位合格的评论家曾像这样评价过一份在华盛顿出版的报纸。

    令维拉德先生刮目相看的这份报纸就是《华盛顿邮报》（Washington Post）。报社老板并不是资深报人，而是尤金•迈耶。这位杰出的银行业家在57岁退休之后，买下了这份报纸。考虑到华盛顿是美国报业竞争最为激烈的城市之一，迈耶先生和《华盛顿邮报》所取得的成绩格外引人瞩目。华盛顿有5家日报【《华盛顿时代先驱报》（Times-Herald）早晚各出一份，可算作2份报纸】，而大部分与之规模相仿的城市都仅有3份日报，而且这些报纸都是严肃可靠的报纸。

    《华盛顿明星报》（Washington Star）是一份颇受商人们欢迎的广告发布媒介，而新闻报道的内容主要是一些无关痛痒的本地新闻，轻而易举地统治着午后晚报的市场。在报道方针上，《华盛顿明星报》奉行不偏不倚，不沾染任何党派色彩的政策。仅仅是报道“恶人”时才会表现出尖锐的批评和讽刺，比如鲁莽驾驶的司机、肆意践踏野花的破坏狂，当然也少不了德国人和日本人。《华盛顿每日新闻报》（Daily News）是斯克利普斯—霍华德报业集团（Scripps-Howard）出版的一份下午小报。最初，在洛厄尔•梅里特出任主编的时期，这份报纸不遗余力地为罗斯福新政摇旗呐喊，但是如今却强烈地反对罗斯福。尽管报道内容很出色，但是这份报纸的订阅量却开始下滑，有一半读者只是在午饭、公交车或是电车上读这份报纸。

    茜茜•帕特森是《华盛顿时代先驱报》的出版人。这份报纸的主要内容是新闻、特写以及她哥和表兄的孤立主义者的偏见，他们分别是《纽约每日新闻》（New York Daily News）与《芝加哥论坛报》（Chicago Tribune）的出版人。人们注意到，茜茜的能力有余而耐性不足，但她也毫不掩饰地表现出自己的刻薄与难以捉摸的性格。《芝加哥论坛报》的漫画名声斐然，茜茜•帕特森从中获利颇丰。而作为这份报纸的老板，她完全可以拿下《华盛顿邮报》。

  Editor's note: Every Sunday Fortune publishes a favorite story from its magazine archives. This week, we turn to a 1944 feature on the evolution of The Washington Post, D.C.'s gold-standard news source for several generations. On August 5, The Washington Post Co. (WPO) announced that it had sold its flagship paper and several of its local newspapers to Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos for $250 million, marking the start of a new chapter in the paper's impressive history.

    When Oswald Garrison Villard, that tireless critic of American journalism, surveyed the newspaper field in Washington in the early twenties, he summed it up in the phrase, "a capital without a Thunderer." He found the newspapers "timid" and "provincial," and so inadequate in presenting the news that the citizen desiring information of events originating in Washington was compelled to buy a New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore daily. Besides his disappointment with the then existing picture, Mr. Villard expressed doubt "whether it would ever be possible to have in Washington a really national newspaper."

    Taking a new look at journalistic Washington recently, Mr. Villard found the situation sharply changed; in contrast to the previous barrenness he found the city had acquired "a newspaper in which it takes genuine pride, whose influence is growing so steadily that it has to be watched day by day by the White House as well as by the members of Congress and the higher officeholders." It was a newspaper, moreover, that had "earned the hearty respect of the newspapermen ... and made notable contributions to the national welfare." No qualified judge had ever said anything like that about a Washington paper before.

    The newspaper that had Mr. Villard rubbing his eyes was the Washington Post, the creation not of any experienced genius in publishing, hut of Eugene Meyer, who acquired the paper at fifty-seven after a distinguished career in banking. What Mr. Meyer has done with the Post is all the more creditable for having been accomplished in one of the most fiercely competitive newspaper cities in the U.S. Washington has five dailies (counting the round-the-clock Times-Herald as two) against only three for most cities of this size, and they are none of them fly-by-nights.

    The Star, favorite advertising medium of the merchants and unoffending compendium of local news, dominates the afternoon field hands down. Editorially, the Star is not merely independent but colorless, reserving its sharpest barbs for such evils as the careless motorist, vandalism against the wildflower, and, of course, the Hun and the Jap. The Daily News, Scripps-Howard's afternoon tabloid, started out under Lowell Mellett as voice and prophet of the New Deal but is now strongly anti-Roosevelt. Although capably edited, the paper has had tough sledding; nearly half its papers are bought to be read at lunchtime or on the bus or trolley.

    "Cissie" Patterson publishes the Times-Herald, with the news services, features, and isolationist preconceptions of her brother and cousin, publishers respectively of the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune. It has been observed that Cissie has more ability than stability, but she puts on a good show of its vitriolic and unpredictable kind. She has the benefit of the highly valued Tribune comics, which, as a director of the Tribune, she was able to take away from the Post.