More Praise for The Warren Buffett Way, First Edition

Washington Post,
the
Everett
( Washington) 
Herald,
and the Gazette Newspapers, a group of
39 weekly papers. The television broadcasting division owns six televi-
sion stations located in Detroit, Miami, Orlando, Houston, San Anto-
nio, and Jacksonville, Florida. The cable television systems division
provides cable and digital video services to more than 1.3 billion sub-
scribers. The magazine division publishes 
Newsweek,
with domestic
circulation of over 3 million and over 600,000 internationally.
In addition to the four major divisions, the Washington Post Com-
pany owns the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Centers, a large network
of schools that prepare students for college admission tests and profes-
sional licensing exams. Best known for its original program that helps
high school students do well on Scholastic Aptitude Tests, Kaplan has
aggressively expanded its operations in recent years. It now includes
after-school classes for grades K-12, the world’s only accredited online
law school, test-prep materials for engineers and CFAs, and campus-
based schools with programs in business, f inance, technology, health,
and other professions. In 2003, Kaplan’s sales totaled $838 million,
making it a signif icant element in the Post Company.
The company owns 28 percent of Cowles Media, which publishes
the 
Minneapolis Star Tribune,
several military newspapers, and 50 per-
cent of the Los Angeles-Washington News Service.
Today, the Washington Post Company is an $8 billion company
generating $3.2 billion in annual sales. Its accomplishments are espe-
cially impressive when you consider that seventy years ago, the com-
pany was in one business—publishing a newspaper.
In 1931, the 
Washington Post
was one of f ive dailies competing for
readers. Two years later, the 
Post,
unable to pay for its newsprint, was

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B u y i n g a B u s i n e s s
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placed in receivership. That summer, the company was sold at auction
to satisfy creditors. Eugene Meyer, a millionaire f inancier, bought the
paper for $825,000. For the next two decades, he supported the opera-
tion until it turned a prof it.
Management of the paper passed to Philip Graham, a brilliant
Harvard-educated lawyer who had married Meyer’s daughter Kather-
ine. In 1954, Phil Graham convinced Eugene Meyer to purchase a rival
newspaper, the 
Times-Herald.
Later, Graham purchased 
Newsweek
magazine and two television stations before his tragic death in 1963. It
is Phil Graham who is credited with transforming the 
Washington Post
from a single newspaper into a media and communications company.
After Phil Graham’s death, control of the 
Washington Post
passed
to his wife, Katherine. Although she had no experience managing a
major corporation, she quickly distinguished herself by confronting dif-
f icult business issues.
Katherine Graham realized that to be successful the company would
need a decision maker not a caretaker. “I quickly learned that things
don’t stand still,” she said. “You have to make decisions.”
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Two deci-
sions that had a pronounced impact on the 
Washington Post
were hiring
Ben Bradlee as managing editor of the newspaper and then inviting
Warren Buffett to become a director of the company. Bradlee encour-
aged Katherine Graham to publish the Pentagon Papers and to pursue
the Watergate investigation, which earned the 
Washington Post
a repu-
tation for prizewinning journalism. Buffett taught Katherine Graham
how to run a successful business.
Buffett f irst met Katherine Graham in 1971. At that time, Buffett
owned stock in the