In its own Washington Post report on the deal, The Washington Post Co. doesn’t disclose the purchase price, but does say the bi-monthly magazine was losing $1.3 million a year under its former owners, a Washington think tank called the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Susan Glasser, a former Post assistant managing editor who’s been working directly for Post Co. chairman Donald E. Graham for the past few months, will become executive editor of Foreign Policy.
Portfolio magazine reported that Richard Burns, chairman of Manhattan Media in New York, had negotiated and hoped to buy Foreign Policy. “It’s a classic Washington monkey-gland injection,” he said in Portfolio. “I’ve got to believe that Foreign Policy is going to be absolutely lost there.” Maybe so – but this is one of a series of niche investments for the Post Co. in recent years – including the launch of The Root, a web site aimed at African Americans, and an investment in tech startup SocialMedian.
Our take: The Washington Post Co. is quietly diversifying its online holdings and, finally, ditching its old philosophy of investing only in sure-thing business hits, like its huge and hugely profitable test prep/education company, Kaplan Inc. In this case, a high-end, influential audience interested in global affairs seems to fit well with the company’s business goals. It’s a quirky, unexpected deal – and I’d look for more like it.
