And for more on that, the broadcaster said, we go to Washington Post political correspondent Jim VandeHei.. I dont know, maybe., There were reasons to lose confidence. We never stopped believing these values, but in my view we did stop fully living by them. This story is from the August issue of Washingtonian, on newsstands July 21. There are days when half of the print editions 44 pages are ads for companies such as Goldman Sachs. But at the bottom of it all, when you cant see someones books, you have to rely on what they say., Allbritton says, Were making a little bit of money in the middle of a recession, and weve been in business only 2 years. Axel Springer, the companys partner in Europe, was looking to acquire stakes in digital-media companies in the United States. Joe Allbritton - Wikipedia Thats never been important to me. This was painful from a personal perspective, intolerable from the publications perspective. Joe Lewis Allbritton (December 29, 1924 - December 12, 2012) was an American banker, publisher and philanthropist. And all the players had to get their stories straight. VandeHei, 38, and Harris, 45, dont seem to be natural allies. Dr. Allbrittons approach to patients is holistic and includes examining the role that diet, mindfulness and exercise play in ones overall health. Joes fortune swelled to more than $2 billion, and he and his wife, Barbara, socialized with President Reagan and George H.W. of Washington LLC He was probably the most powerful businessman in the city, says Bill Regardie, the former publisher of Regardies, Washingtons monthly business magazine at the time. We are making money, Allbritton says. Robert and Elena pledged $5 million to create a Center for the Study of Public Life at Wesleyan. Neither was attached. By 2001, when his son took over, larger banks such as Wachovia and Bank of America had invaded, bought local franchises, and expanded branches and services. I learned by osmosis how to deal with people, what was a good risk, what was a bad risk, Robert says. "For the third consecutive year, POLITICO Publisher Robert Allbritton and his wife, Dr. Elena Allbritton, opened the doors of their Georgetown home on the Sunday following the White House . The White House staff, for instance, works a two-day shift every other weekend, and several congressional reporters have worked seven-day weeks with little downtime since September. In 1981, when Joe Allbritton bid $70 million for 40 percent of the stock and a controlling interest, Riggs was the regions largest bank. David Rogers came from the Wall Street Journal. The Post brass took notes. But when they started to add up the costs of starting such a venture, which would require about 48 employees, they arrived at $2 million. Were growing like crazy. (Axel Springer declined to comment.). Could you create something on your own that would dominate the coverage of politics? Joe L. Allbritton - NNDB In 2005, Riggs was sold to PNC Financial Services Group. Within two years, it brought hundreds of new employees to Rosslyn and accounted for a quarter of Politicos revenue. He remained a member of the board of Riggs Bank's parent company Riggs National Corporation until 2004.[6]. Allbritton picked the biggest game in town: politics. Friendship grew into romance, which deepened when they returned to Washington. Mike Allen, Politicos chief White House correspondent, rocked the Posts reputation for journalistic ethics with a story in July about the papers plan to bring reporters, editors, politicians, and lobbyists together in a salonpaid for by corporate sponsorsat publisher Katharine Weymouths home. Were both very fortunate people, he says. We would like to hire two., Most Washington editors and reporters are skeptical about claims that Politico is turning a profit, in part because Allbritton has hired so many high-priced journalists. Why not create their venture within the Post? He asked his accountants to boil the deal down to one page, got into his blue Mini Cooper at the company headquarters in Rosslyn, and drove across the Potomac River to his parents home on Foxhall Road in DC. Political reporting means long and unpredictable hours, and thats fine. There are also days when only six of 28 pages are paid ads. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. I love Don, Robert says. You might learn something. He was incredibly inclusive., Friends came to sit around the dinner table and learn by Joe Allbrittons Socratic method. Robert meets with his parents every spring to designate recipients. Before Politico, VandeHei says, his only management experience had been being a night-shift manager at Little Caesars in high school. But over the previous two years, hed charted new income streams and driven impressive revenue growth. VandeHei gradually became so far removed from newsgathering that when he did suggest a story to pursue, senior reporters sometimes ribbed him that he was no longer good enough to get the scoop himself. Afterward, Allbritton occasionally gave instructions to executives and said, Dont tell Jim that I told you this., Politicos leaders were grateful to Allbritton for the resources he devoted to the company but were puzzled about why he wouldnt embrace the role of owner and allow the executive staff to run the company, the source says. I wake up every morning and say, Thank you, God, for a wonderful day. . They have multi-revenue streams and a layered audience, so they can take advantage of their national reach and a very targeted local readership at the same time., She agrees that ad dollars are plentiful on Capitol Hill. Any one article does not have all the facts. Some journalists have a natural tendency to want to prove their theory correct.. Together, VandeHei and Allbritton exported Politicos model to new markets both domestic and international. Around this time, VandeHei got word through media consultant David Bass that Allbritton wanted changes at the Capitol Leader. According to a former member of Politicos leadership, the departures were driven by an erosion of faith in Allbritton. What if I got you on Face the Nation every other week? Friedman asked. Robert was always better than I was [at programming], remembers Face the Nation host John Dickerson, Allbrittons childhood friend. But theyd come to the conclusion that the Post under Downie wasnt nimble enough to produce the Internet and newspaper publication they hoped to create. Robert says team sports were not his thing. Zander relied on a single editor to run his weekly publicationto write stories, snap photographs, choose headlines. Students protested apartheid in South Africa, among other things. Meanwhile, the political reporting at Politico often eclipses the Posts coveragefrom the White House to Capitol Hill. True, our first two guys came from the Post, but most came from all over the place.. Media writer Mike Calderone was riding the 42 bus down Connecticut Avenue when he got e-mails that Joe Scarborough had dropped the F-bomb on MSNBC. Moodys analyst Karen Berckmann, who wrote the reports on Allbritton, explains that the companys negative rating is due to the balance of debt to earnings it must maintain to meet covenants with its lenders. We were into personal computers before personal computers were cool, Robert says. At the same time Robert Allbritton was guiding Riggs through the money-laundering investigation and sale, he was courting his wife-to-beand recovering from a broken neck. He definitely saw himself as a transformational, transfigurative corporate leader and media baron, says a former senior Politico reporter.