Newspaper publisher cancels ‘salons’
WASHINGTON - Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth yesterday canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.
“Absolutely, I’m disappointed,’’ Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, said in an interview. “This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren’t vetted. They didn’t represent at all what we were attempting to do. We’re not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom.’’
Moments earlier, executive editor Marcus Brauchli said in a separate interview he was “appalled’’ by the plan and had insisted before the cancellation that the newsroom would not participate. “It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase,’’ Brauchli said. The proposal “promises we would suspend our usual skeptical questioning because it appears to offer, in exchange for sponsorships, the good name of The Washington Post.’’
The fliers, circulated by the paper’s parent company, offering an “intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and publisher Katharine Weymouth.’’ The fliers, which said participants would be charged $25,000 to sponsor a single salon and $250,000 to underwrite an annual series of 11 sessions, were reported yesterday by Politico.
“We do not offer access to the newsroom for money,’’ Brauchli said. “We just are not in that business.’’ He told the staff in an e-mail the newsroom would have no part of this plan, writing: “Our independence from advertisers or sponsors is inviolable.’’
Two Post executives familiar with the planning, who declined to be identified, said the fliers appear to be the product of overzealous marketing executives. The fliers were overseen by Charles Pelton, a Post executive hired this year as a conference organizer. He was not immediately available for comment.
