David Broder, Tony Kornheiser Take Buyouts At Washington Post

Two big names have accepted buyouts at the Washington Post today, with both veteran political columnist David Broder and sports columnist Tony Kornheiser taking the paper's offer.

The Politico's Michael Calderone reports that Broder announced the news in a note to his column clients, but that he will transition to a contract writer in 2009:

Veteran Washington Post political columnist David Broder is going to take a buyout from the paper. As of Jan 1, 2009, he will become a contract employee of the Post.

Here's a note sent to Broder's column clients, obtained by Politico.

"The column you have been running will not change at all, and you will continue to receive it from The Washington Post Writers Group. I will continue to write from the same office in the Post newsroom and will continue to travel the country to wherever politics is happening. You will find me at the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer and on the campaign trail this fall, just as I have been this winter and spring."

Read the entire note here.

The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg reports that Kornheiser announced the news on his radio show:

Dang. From his radio show a few minutes ago:

"All I ever wanted to be was a newspaper writer," he said, which is likely not something that anyone under the age of 30 will ever say again. "This other stuff is great, but I don't care about it," he continued. "In my mind that's what it says on the headstone, it says 'newspaper guy.' "

But he also said he signed the papers to take the Post's buyout last night, after working here for, I believe, 29 years. He said he still might contract with The Post to do his Talking Points videos and his Page 2 excerpts, and he said some people in the leadership asked him to stay but didn't really insist, and even though he'll keep doing PTI and the radio show and MNF, he said he feared he'd never have the moral high ground again.

Read Kornheiser's complete comments here.

Comments

[shengirl]

The WP is getting less and less worth buying and reading. Over the years they've dumped a lot of quality writers. It's getting too conservative, too.

[racom]

They should just do the right thing, change the name to 'DC_Pravda', the official voice of the repuglican, neo-cons!

[Namaimo]

Yes, since 2002. That's when I stopped my subscription.

[COMtns]

People still read or buy the WaPo? Why?

[Namaimo]

It makes for fashionable bird cage liner. I get the recycled copies just for that.

[thepoliticalcat]

So we're stuck with that dreadful bloviating gasbag and professional idiot, David Broder, for the rest of our lives, it would appear. He's been singularly wrong on every political issue for nearly two decades now (including predicting regular comebacks for The Worst President In History). Nevertheless, the Post refuses to put the old fool out to pasture. And they wonder why their circulation continues to drop.

[gnorrfa]

somebody taped your eyes open and made you read his stuff?

[racom]

Was this in defense of the gas bag?

[trackpad]

Someone please explain the meaning and significance of this story. Don't mean that in a rude way, I am just asking. K thx bye.

[Roopez123]

The end of newspapers through corporate consolidation.

[JohnBarleycorn]

The death of newsprint courtesy of the WWW. Every major newspaper is seeing revenue drops due to more and more online advertising, and they've been further hurt by the loss of revenues courtesy of sites like Craig's List and eBay. Classified ads are/were a huge revenue source for the newspaper industry.

Broder is both an excellent thinker and a fine writer, ageists idiocy notwithstanding. I'm not a reader of Kornheiser, but I find him annoying as heck on MNF and on his ESPN TV show.

In any event, the print newspaper industry is in decline and some of us are sorry to see this happen.

Online newspapers are like online sex. Close, but no cigar.

[hilaritee]

nice summary! well done.

[trackpad]

Yes. Yes. Well done. Thanks.

[SmootyBooty]

Darn. For a brief moment I thought that gas-bag Broder might STFU!

[ssg13565]

I had the same hope as you. There was a time when I would read his column or watch him on Washington Week. That time has long since passed. He has definitely lost touch with reality.

[racom]

He has seen this day coming, that explains his consistently sucking up to the 'rich & dreadful'. Just preparing for a comfortable retirement with lots of ill gotten gain.

[mediamarv]

Transitioning to a contract writer (I'm a contract media producer) hardly seems to fit the definition of a "buyout" as I know it. Several ATT people I know have taken buyouts and, very significantly, don't work for the company any more. What he got instead of a buyout was a re-categorizing of his work status.
From W-2 to Misc. 1099.

So, why the big fanfare??????

[Anastasia]

It's not clear from Broder's memo but it appears that his column will be syndicated to papers who want to pick it up, but he won't be writing for WaPo anymore. I think.