Katharine Graham: Lessons from a media matriarch

One of the extraordinary business leaders of the 20th century passed away last month. Katharine "Kay" Meyer Graham, 84, was a former chairman of the Washington Post Company and was for decades cited as "the most powerful woman in America."

In 1993, I wrote her to ask if there was a good reference book on the history of her company. She mailed me a package containing the revised and updated, 540-page book In the Shadow of Power: The Story of The Washington Post by Chalmers M. Roberts. Four years later in 1997, the then 80-year-old yet still feisty businesswoman wrote her very honest memoir Personal History, where she cited the Roberts book as "a constant source of information." This memoir became a popular bestseller and won her the Pulitzer Prize for biography.

Every US president from John F. Kennedy (except for Richard Nixon) visited her home. Even our very own President Corazon Aquino dropped by the Graham abode.

Five months ago, Graham hosted a party for President George W. Bush attended by her friends such as billionaire Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, Barbara Walters, writer George Will, etc. Hers was a story of how a shy and insecure woman survived many tragedies, became a fearless publisher and capable businesswoman, defied and helped bring down US President Richard Nixon, triumphed over a dangerous labor strike in 1975, elevated the status of women and upheld the inviolability of press freedom.

When the inexperienced Katharine Graham inherited control of the Washington Post Company in 1963 after her husband’s suicide, it was a relatively small enterprise with the newspaper, Newsweek magazine and two television stations. But under her stewardship, the business grew and diversified into a publicly-listed communications empire with sales last year of US$2.41 billion and net income of US$136.5 million. The group now includes many newspapers and newsprint businesses, six television stations, cable TV, magazines, half of the International Herald Tribune, and educational services. Unknown to most people, her group’s Kaplan, Inc. is the fastest-growing and most profitable part of her empire, posting a 108-percent growth last year to US$536 million. The licensee in Philippines of Kaplan is the family of Universal Steel boss Joseph Lim, a former Ateneo de Manila University student of then economics teacher Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Today, the Washington Post Co. is run by Katharine’s 56-year-old son Donald, a hardworking Harvard alumnus. Seen huddled together after Katharine’s funeral were former US President Bill Clinton and Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett, a board director and major investor in Washington Post Co. In 1987 at a New York luncheon honoring Katharine, Buffet said the average growth for the top six media companies was 1,550 percent since 1964, but Washington Post Co. under her grew by 3,150 percent. Forbes magazine this year lists investing guru Buffett as the world’s second wealthiest billionaire with US$30.2 billion in net worth, replacing last year’s second wealthiest Larry Ellison of Oracle (who is now ranked fourth wealthiest).

Doing a Sally Aw Sian & Betty Go Belmonte

As female boss of a media empire, Katharine Graham had few parallels in the world. In Asia, two women publishers were in some respects similar. Hong Kong taipan Sally Aw Sian used to control the international Sing Tao newspaper chain of Asia and North America, and her father, Burmese Chinese entrepreneur Aw Boon Haw, built his fortune with his invention of the Tiger Balm ointment. Another was the late Philippine STAR founding chairman Betty Go Belmonte, daughter of a pioneering newspaper publisher and who herself became respected for her guts, integrity and idealism.

Katharine was the courageous daughter of Jewish banker Eugene Meyer, whose ancestors in France included brave rabbis and Jewish community leaders. In 1971 when her company was about to be listed in the stock exchange and advisers told her to be careful, Graham defied a federal judge by publishing the "Pentagon Papers" on the American government’s secret history of meddling in the Vietnam War. Eventually, the courts vindicated Washington Post and people started to compare her newspaper to the New York Times, controlled by the Jewish Ochs-Sulzberger clan. In 1972, Katharine Graham again stood up for press freedom, supporting two reporters in exposing the Watergate scandal despite Nixon’s threats to strip away broadcast licenses for her TV stations. The company’s stock lost 50 percent of its value, but she stood her ground, Nixon was forced to resign, she became a national hero and her paper won the Pulitzer Prize.

Katharine was the first woman boss of a firm in Fortune magazine’s top 500 largest corporations (there are now four women CEOs). She was the first woman director of Associated Press and of the American Newspaper Publishers Association (which voted her chairman). She also endured anti-Semitic prejudice, such as student clubs in the University of Chicago that did not admit her due to her Jewish heritage, or certain Washington DC areas that did not want Jews to live in their vicinity. When her husband Phil’s 1963 suicide thrust her to the leadership of Washington Post, she had to overcome male chauvinism. Her late father’s media business was run by Phil since 1946. She recalled her early days: "What I essentially did was put one foot in front of the other, shut my eyes and stepped off the ledge. The surprise was that I landed on my feet."

Like Cory Aquino, Imelda Marcos & Eleonor Roosevelt

Almost like Katharine, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino was heiress to a rich clan and a sheltered housewife who was thrust into opposition leadership after the 1983 assassination of her husband Senator Ninoy Aquino. Newsweek magazine quotes former President Aquino: "I first met Katharine Graham in 1986, during the presidential election. She and Meg Greenfield came here to observe. I invited them to an intimate lunch at my brother’s place. I immediately felt comfortable with her. No airs. She didn’t do much talking, she didn’t look down on people. I talked about the campaign and she wanted to see me perform and have a feel of it. So she and Meg joined me at a rally. It was a big crowd we had to go through. Katharine lost her watch! Instead of casting aspersions on the people, getting angry, she was so polite. She said she must have dropped it and told me not to worry about it. She’s such a lady. But she’s firm. Noblesse oblige. As president, when I made my visit to the United States, I wrote Meg about it. That was September 1986. Katharine hosted dinner for me in her home in Georgetown. I felt so privileged! I was so impressed, Katharine Graham listening to me. Also, it was the first time I ever tasted white chocolate mousse. I really liked it. I don’t remember much of what we talked about. More than what she said or told me, it’s what she did for me. I don’t equate myself with her but we’re similar, in a way. We stuck to home and children, focused on our duties as mother and wife. We led sheltered lives. But when we lost our husbands, a whole new world opened."

Coincidentally, aspects of Katharine’s life were also similar to those of two First Ladies. Imelda Marcos was once a shy housewife transformed by politics. The public scandals of President Marcos taking on mistresses reportedly made Imelda a stronger political leader who exerted power as the tireless Metro Manila Governor, a cabinet official and special ambassador. In 1963, Katharine’s husband Phil had left her to have an affair with a Newsweek researcher, causing public embarrassments and Phil later shot himself at age 48 due to manic depression. Phil’s philandering and death had changed Katharine into a strong-willed woman. Another similar saga was that of Eleanor Roosevelt who once led a sheltered life as housewife. However, when Eleanor discovered in 1919 that her husband President Franklin Roosevelt had an affair with Lucy Mercer, her world was shattered. Eleanor eventually recovered from the trauma, gained her freedom from her fears, went on to write history as America’s greatest First Lady in the frontlines of many public causes.

Katharine "Kay" Graham was a remarkable woman. She believed "journalistic excellence and profitability go hand in hand." She achieved financial success and expansion for her family enterprise. She built her newspaper’s greatness and prestige, overcame her insecurities and personal tragedies to inspire countless other people, and she defended press freedom with her indomitable passion for truth.

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