Politico hit it hard with the story of how the Washington Post was hoping to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars by charging influence peddlers to attend exclusive meals with Post people and decision-makers.

Now come a flurry of memos in the wake of the crisis. Here are a couple of them:

Read More “Washington Post “Salon” Scandal: The Memo Trail” »

It’s no surprise that all Michael Jackson memorabilia is being bought excessively around the world since he died on Thursday.  Time and Newsweek already released commemorative issues showing Jackson at various times through his career, the MJ cover band Who’s Bad sold out not one, but two shows at the 9:30 Club on Friday night and three of his albums sold upwards of 100,000 copies each over the past 5 days.

But if the music, creepy cover bands, and glossy magazine covers aren’t enough, you can now buy a poster announcing his death.  From The Washington Post.  The newspaper is selling copies of its “commemorative Michael Jackson edition” online for upwards of $50 each.  Normally, these commemorative editions are released for such momentous occasions as presidential elections and inaugurations, wars, invasions, and other momentous events.  Deaths of notable people certainly qualify as momentous events, but it’s a depressing thing to commemorate.  And the commemorative edition looks nothing like the actual cover of Friday’s Post, where Jackson only covered a third of the front page.

Michael Jackson was iconic and he deserves to be remembered that way.  But a $50 print of a fake newspaper cover might not be the way to remember him.

Management of the Washington Post is impressed with how the paper handled the Metro crash and the death of King of Pop Michael Jackson. Memo, after the jump, says it’s now time for the sports section to shine.

Read More “Washington Post Happy with Coverage” »

It’s almost as if Washington really paid attention to the summer solstice. This town hops like mad in the springtime—from the Cherry Blossom festival all the way through Pride Weekend, the place is mayhem. Street closings, marathons, road races, everything—don’t even bother driving near the downtown/federal core on a weekend. You’re just going to get stuck in traffic.

Read More “Weekend in Review: City Emptying Out!” »

From an email to Post employees:

Pay tribute to the King of Pop with a commemorative poster, available for
sale at the main entrance of NW for $5.

As an employee of The Washington Post, you’re receiving first notice about
this special opportunity.

Late last week came the news that editors at the Washington Post had discontinued Dan Froomkin’s popular White House Watch Web-only column after a five-and-a-half-year run.

This wasn’t just another media-personnel story for the trade publications. The act of a powerful news organization cutting off the head of a Bush-bashing media figure gave the Internet free license to indulge in Idiot Time.

Read More “Why Did the Washington Post Sack Dan Froomkin?” »

From this point forward, the Washington Post newsroom pledges to start buzzing long before, like, noon each day. More reporters and editors, says Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli, will start coming in earlier.

The reason for the switch? Check out the memo after the jump.

Read More “WaPo Adjusts Working Hours” »

Good morning readers. And, while I have your attention, let me take a minute to join the long list of public officials and say: I’m very saddened by the Metro crash. Condolences all around. But, jeesh, it’s not the only thing to go down Monday night.

Petworth residents are perturbed by a possible new round of gang warfare that broke out in their hood hours after the Red Line crash. Just before midnight Jun. 22, police say, there was a double shooting on the 600 block of Quebec Place, N.W. A woman suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and a man – who police believe was shot at the scene and fled in a car that crashed – later died of his injuries, Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser told her constituents yesterday.

About three hours later, police responded to an apparent shootout on the 500 block of Shepherd Street, N.W. They reported finding cars riddled with bullet holes but no victims.

Read More “Petworth Shootouts – Possibly Gang Related – Spark More Recriminations Over Defunct Crime Bill” »

Throughout yesterday, more details about the Metro crash were released, including the names of the nine individuals who died in Monday afternoon’s accident. City Desk also reported that the train that hit the stopped train outside Fort Totten was 2 months overdue for its brake maintenance service.  The train that initiated the crash was also made up of 1000-series Metro cars, the oldest in the system.  Now the Washington Post is reporting that the driver of the train, who was killed in the crash, had activated the emergency brake on the train, but it did not stop. 

Other things are happening beyond the Red Line, of course.  Read about them after the jump.

Read More “Our Morning Roundup: One Day At A Time Edition” »

At this moment, Dr. Gridlock is in the vanguard of Washington Post coverage of this afternoon’s train mishap in Northeast D.C. The item credits WJLA-TV and CNN for key facts on the accident.

Here’s one commenter from the washingtonpost.com on the matter:

How is the Washington Post being scooped about a potentially serious metro rail collision? This happened about 45 minutes ago, and it’s still in little print at the bottom of the Post web page. Come on guys. Surely you haven’t all taken the buy out?

A timeless episode, in which Erik sifts through a deep pile to give props to the Post’s Ready to Rent advertorial supplement (”a humdinger of a publication”) and to Asian Fortune (”you can’t beat this magazine, folks”) for its snazzy, bloggy layout and its treatment of evergreen stories. The black sheep? None other than the InTowner, which Erik upbraids for flacking for a brokerage firm.

Inspirational quote: “Good on Asian Fortune for dealing with an ages-old issue here…this could be 1880 for all I know!”

The typists’ gathering spot sportsjournalists.com has been rumoring that the Washington Post will hire a former Baltimore Sun columnist, Rick Maese, to replace Vinny Cerrato nemesis Jason La Canfora on the Redskins beat.

As predicted in this space, the beat wasn’t big enough for the Skins’ GM/racquetball partner/DJ and the Post’s writer/blogger/agitator.

La Canfora left the paper to work the NFL Network.

Read More “Cheap Seats Daily: La Canfora Replacement from RavensLand? Mike ‘Biggest Loser’ Williams Not Big Enough for Madden? Brunell’s Band to Play Six Flags?” »

The Marcus Brauchli regime at the Washington Post took power last September. Yet it took nearly 10 months for the new regime to really plot out a different course for this storied institution, and that course involves having Post readers send in videos of their pets doing tricks. Sound a bit familiar?

Now if they could just figure out how to marry this feature with the new weddings reporter—solvency city!

After jump, check out top Post editor Raju Narisetti’s ambitions for the pet photo contest!

Read More “Pets and Videos: Welcome to the New Washington Post!” »

Good to see Michelle Rhee getting some ink these days. It’s been two years since she started as chancellor of the D.C. public schools, a time the Washington Post figures is as good as any to go long on her performance.

The catchy lede, on why Rhee appeared on the cover of Time mag holding a broom—a cliched pose for a reformer of any institution. Here’s the Post’s Bill Turque, reporting Rhee’s account to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray of why she allowed this photo to go get shot:

Read More “Weekend In Review: Two Years for Rhee” »

A bit of the NFL may be coming to the Washington Post.

No, this region’s premier daily isn’t signing anyone to a multimillion-dollar contract or deploying the cover-two on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. But the paper may soon be designating a platoon of “franchise players.”

Read More “WaPo: Clearing the Way for Layoffs?” »