????編者按：每周日，《財富》雜志（Fortune）都會從往期文章中精選出一篇最受讀者歡迎的文章。本周，我們選取的是發表于1944年的一篇特寫，記述了《華盛頓郵報》的進化史，回顧了位于華盛頓特區的這份優質新聞源在幾個時代中的變遷。2013年8月5日，華盛頓郵報集團宣布，將旗下旗艦報紙和幾份地方報紙以2.5億美元的價格出售給了亞馬遜公司首席執行官杰夫?貝佐斯，至此，這家有著輝煌歷史的報紙又掀開了全新的篇章。

????奧斯瓦德?加里森?維拉德是一位孜孜不倦的美國報業批評家。20世紀初，他完成了對華盛頓地區報業的調查之后，用了一個短語作為結論：這是一個沒有一份像《泰晤士報》（Thunderer，《泰晤士報》外號——譯注）這樣報紙的首都。他認為華盛頓的報紙要么“懦弱”，要么“粗鄙”，無法滿足民眾對于首都地區新聞報道的需求，他們不得不轉而去購買在紐約、費城、甚至是巴爾的摩出版的日報。維拉德除了表示對華盛頓報業現狀的失望之外，他還質疑“是否能在有生之年看到華盛頓能擁有一份真正的全國性報紙”。

????最近，維拉德先生再次調查華盛頓報業最近的狀況之后，他發現情況已經大為改觀。這片曾經的“報業荒漠”如今卻有了“一份這座城市真正為之驕傲和自豪的報紙，這份報紙的影響力與日俱增，已經成為美國總統、國會議員以及高級官員們每日必讀的刊物”。它已經超出了一份報紙的范疇，贏得了“報人們由衷地尊敬……還為國家福祉做出了杰出的貢獻”。此前，沒有任何一位合格的評論家曾像這樣評價過一份在華盛頓出版的報紙。

????令維拉德先生刮目相看的這份報紙就是《華盛頓郵報》（Washington Post）。報社老板并不是資深報人，而是尤金?邁耶。這位杰出的銀行業家在57歲退休之后，買下了這份報紙。考慮到華盛頓是美國報業競爭最為激烈的城市之一，邁耶先生和《華盛頓郵報》所取得的成績格外引人矚目。華盛頓有5家日報【《華盛頓時代先驅報》（Times-Herald）早晚各出一份，可算作2份報紙】，而大部分與之規模相仿的城市都僅有3份日報，而且這些報紙都是嚴肅可靠的報紙。

????《華盛頓明星報》（Washington Star）是一份頗受商人們歡迎的廣告發布媒介，而新聞報道的內容主要是一些無關痛癢的本地新聞，輕而易舉地統治著午后晚報的市場。在報道方針上，《華盛頓明星報》奉行不偏不倚，不沾染任何黨派色彩的政策。僅僅是報道“惡人”時才會表現出尖銳的批評和諷刺，比如魯莽駕駛的司機、肆意踐踏野花的破壞狂，當然也少不了德國人和日本人。《華盛頓每日新聞報》（Daily News）是斯克利普斯—霍華德報業集團（Scripps-Howard）出版的一份下午小報。最初，在洛厄爾?梅里特出任主編的時期，這份報紙不遺余力地為羅斯福新政搖旗吶喊，但是如今卻強烈地反對羅斯福。盡管報道內容很出色，但是這份報紙的訂閱量卻開始下滑，有一半讀者只是在午飯、公交車或是電車上讀這份報紙。

????茜茜?帕特森是《華盛頓時代先驅報》的出版人。這份報紙的主要內容是新聞、特寫以及她哥和表兄的孤立主義者的偏見，他們分別是《紐約每日新聞》（New York Daily News）與《芝加哥論壇報》（Chicago Tribune）的出版人。人們注意到，茜茜的能力有余而耐性不足，但她也毫不掩飾地表現出自己的刻薄與難以捉摸的性格。《芝加哥論壇報》的漫畫名聲斐然，茜茜?帕特森從中獲利頗豐。而作為這份報紙的老板，她完全可以拿下《華盛頓郵報》。

??Editor's note: Every Sunday Fortune publishes a favorite story from its magazine archives. This week, we turn to a 1944 feature on the evolution of The Washington Post, D.C.'s gold-standard news source for several generations. On August 5, The Washington Post Co. (WPO) announced that it had sold its flagship paper and several of its local newspapers to Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos for $250 million, marking the start of a new chapter in the paper's impressive history.

????When Oswald Garrison Villard, that tireless critic of American journalism, surveyed the newspaper field in Washington in the early twenties, he summed it up in the phrase, "a capital without a Thunderer." He found the newspapers "timid" and "provincial," and so inadequate in presenting the news that the citizen desiring information of events originating in Washington was compelled to buy a New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore daily. Besides his disappointment with the then existing picture, Mr. Villard expressed doubt "whether it would ever be possible to have in Washington a really national newspaper."

????Taking a new look at journalistic Washington recently, Mr. Villard found the situation sharply changed; in contrast to the previous barrenness he found the city had acquired "a newspaper in which it takes genuine pride, whose influence is growing so steadily that it has to be watched day by day by the White House as well as by the members of Congress and the higher officeholders." It was a newspaper, moreover, that had "earned the hearty respect of the newspapermen ... and made notable contributions to the national welfare." No qualified judge had ever said anything like that about a Washington paper before.

????The newspaper that had Mr. Villard rubbing his eyes was the Washington Post, the creation not of any experienced genius in publishing, hut of Eugene Meyer, who acquired the paper at fifty-seven after a distinguished career in banking. What Mr. Meyer has done with the Post is all the more creditable for having been accomplished in one of the most fiercely competitive newspaper cities in the U.S. Washington has five dailies (counting the round-the-clock Times-Herald as two) against only three for most cities of this size, and they are none of them fly-by-nights.

????The Star, favorite advertising medium of the merchants and unoffending compendium of local news, dominates the afternoon field hands down. Editorially, the Star is not merely independent but colorless, reserving its sharpest barbs for such evils as the careless motorist, vandalism against the wildflower, and, of course, the Hun and the Jap. The Daily News, Scripps-Howard's afternoon tabloid, started out under Lowell Mellett as voice and prophet of the New Deal but is now strongly anti-Roosevelt. Although capably edited, the paper has had tough sledding; nearly half its papers are bought to be read at lunchtime or on the bus or trolley.

????"Cissie" Patterson publishes the Times-Herald, with the news services, features, and isolationist preconceptions of her brother and cousin, publishers respectively of the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune. It has been observed that Cissie has more ability than stability, but she puts on a good show of its vitriolic and unpredictable kind. She has the benefit of the highly valued Tribune comics, which, as a director of the Tribune, she was able to take away from the Post.