Katharine Graham: A Grateful Tribute

It was this spring when I most recently met Katharine Graham, former chairman of the Washington Post. She was so lively then that I had no idea that it was going to be the last meeting with her.

Mrs. Graham provided me an opportunity to meet with many leading figures in Washington at her residence in Georgetown. Now I won't be able to express my gratitude for her cordiality ever again.

She gave me books by Presidents Truman and Eisenhower with their autographs, saying it was better that I should have them because there were many passages about Korea.

My friendship with Mrs. Graham goes back to the distant past. I first met her in 1977 with my father. I have met her almost every year since then, and after I took the helm of the JoongAng Ilbo in 1994, she helped me both privately and professionally.

The death of Mrs. Graham is devastating to the media industry worldwide as well as to the American media. The Washington Post emerged as a leading newspaper in the United States under the leadership of Mrs. Graham. She took control over the Post in 1963 when her husband passed away, and she sweated day and night with reporters and editorial staff to make the paper better.

As a result of her strenuous efforts for 30 years, by the time she handed over the management to her son, Donald Graham, in 1993, the Post had become a Fortune 500 company.

She also devoted herself to diversifying her business, entering new media, and made the Post a solid company. She showed in action her belief that fair reporting comes from a solid financial footing.

It is not only the management aspect of the paper that was on her mind. Even as she led the company in terms of sales and advertising, she respected the judgment of the editorial staff as much as possible.

She rarely intervened in personnel matters and tried to maintain the principles on which her company was founded.

While her memoir has now amply informed the public, the courage and wisdom that the Post exhibited during the Watergate scandal was truly remarkable. She staved off all kinds of pressures coming from the Nixon administration.

In an article in the Wall Street Journal in March of last year, Mrs. Graham said she hoped newspapers, be they public or private, could maintain their independence and courage in reporting matters such as the Watergate scandal. She said a true democracy depended on such papers.

The government and the press are always in a state of tension. In order to maintain a constructive tension, Mrs. Graham said, newspaper companies need to be managed soundly and to have a solid management network centered around an owner. She showed in action the noblesse oblige of an owner of a newspaper company.

Mrs. Graham is the most influential woman that the United States ever produced. I will always remember her as a person who wrote a page in world media history as a female and a newspaper executive.

The JoongAng Ilbo has maintained a close cooperation with the Post, including the publication of the Korean edition of Newsweek and the International Herald Tribune-JoongAng Ilbo English Edition. This relationship will expand and prosper in the future. Pray rest in peace, Chairman Graham.

by Hong Seok-hyun