Ben Bradlee: 'Post' Buyouts, Change in Editor 'Not Distressing'

By: Joe Strupp Former Executive Editor Ben Bradlee said the combination of upcoming buyouts at The Washington Post and the likely departure of Leonard Downie Jr. is a big change, but not something to cause concern.

"It isn't distressing in any sense," says Bradlee, 86, who served as executive editor from 1965 to 1991 and appointed Downie as his managing editor. "It is a natural progression. I think it is a big change, but I don?t see a wrenching change in direction."

Bradlee, who is retired but keeps an office at the Post, spoke with E&P Monday, just days after Downie announced more than 100 newsroom staffers had opted for a buyout. Downie's future also has been the subject of speculation for months, since new publisher Katharine Weymouth took over.

"You have a new publisher, Downie looks at the calendar, he is going to change," Bradlee says. "I think he is going to leave. My God, he has been here longer than I have!" Bradlee referred to Downie's entire time at the Post, which dates back to 1964, a year before Bradlee joined as editor.

Bradlee says he does not believe anyone is unhappy with Downie's work, but notes that at some point change is needed regardless of the person at the top. "There is no sense of a need to get rid of Downie," Bradlee says. "But it is time for a change. That is an outgrowth of a new generation of owners with a new editor." Downie, at 66, "is headed for 70 and they ought to be out by 70."

Recalling his own retirement at 70 in 1991, Bradlee said he had expected the publisher to ask him to step down at 65. "They didn?t want me to leave, but a couple of years later, [former publisher Donald Graham] asked me what my plans were and we agreed to try it until 70 and that was fine," he said. "Don?t kid yourself, you do lose a step."

Bradlee said he has spoken with Downie, who served as his managing editor from 1984 to 1991, but did not give him any direct advice: "I am not going to tell him what to do."

He adds that the biggest recent change already occurred months ago with the appointment of Weymouth, the niece of former publisher Donald Graham and granddaughter of legendary publisher Katharine Graham, for whom Bradlee worked.

"To combine that with a new editor is both an opportunity and a difference," he said of Weymouth's appointment. "She deserves her own editor. I am crazy about her. She is bright, plus she is charming, she's funny and she's good company. She is a winner and she has got tremendous support inside the company."

Bradlee said having a Graham family member in charge is a plus for the paper, even with major editorial changes and job cuts. "I am so pleased about the family thing. The family is wonderful," he said, adding that "I have talked to her plenty, but I don?t have a [new editor] candidate for her."

On the buyouts, which will likely cut the 700-plus newsroom staff by more than 100 bodies, including a handful of section editors, Bradlee said: "These buyouts are forced, I guess, on everyone." He added, "I'd like to see a study of how many people are rehired under contract," citing columnist David Broder, who took the buyout but will remain on a contract basis.

"It must impact it somewhere," he said, adding that he had a staff of about 900 during his peak as editor. "That is when cool heads started to prevail. There were people here who wrote three or four pieces a year," he recalled. "It didn?t bother me, but it bothered the bean counters. Today fewer people are writing more."

But Bradlee stressed the cost of running the newsroom is much higher, obviously. "The newsroom budget when I got here was $4 million," he said about his first year in 1965. "It is $100 million now. But the paper is much more ambitious. I don?t think we even had a foreign bureau then."