The Post Page #2

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to a vanilla ice cream cone.

-She did, yeah.

-Yeah.

I mean, why would

her father want Judy

to cover his

daughter's wedding?

-Oh, come on.

-I just...

Are you sure we're striking

the right tone here, Dan?

Oh, we're gonna do this again?

No, the new Style

section, sometimes the

-stiletto party coverage

-I'm handling it.

-can be a little mean.

-I'm handling it.

-I'm looking for a new editor.

-Yes.

Are you? Because I know I've

talked to you about this before.

You are losing female readership,

you know, and I think

I think you might wanna

focus more on what women--

Katharine, keep your

finger out of my eye.

You...

These breakfasts were

your idea, you know.

Ah, yes, yes, and you

are the publisher

and you are my boss and I uh...

I value the input but I-I-I heard

you the first three times.

You know, I just think that

there might be another way

that we could cool it

with the White House,

maybe we could just send

somebody else, you know?

-Nope, nope, nope.

-Because it is

I'm not gonna send

another reporter.

not hard news, Ben,

it's just a wedding.

It's not just a wedding, it's...

It's the wedding of the daughter of

the President of the United States.

-Let that girl have her day.

-We can't have them--

an administration dictating

to us our coverage

just because they don't like

what we print about

them in our newspaper.

I wonder if Abe cares

so passionately about

who covers the wedding

for his paper.

Well, I don't give a rat's ass

what Abe or anybody at the

New York Times cares about.

Not true, I give one rat's ass.

One retromingent rat's ass.

Tell 'em it's from Sheehan.

Don't walk.

It's from Sheehan.

Abe, here it is.

Okay, Roder's got Nixon

working on a second term.

Osles has something on G.I.s

buying heroin in Saigon, but

Ryder's got a rocket on the

FBI list of potential subversives.

Ah, save it for the afternoon,

I need Chal and Judith.

Judith!

Is that real--a subversives list?

Oh, yeah, Hoover at

Justice keep a copy.

Thousands of names.

Geyelin heard the White House

is shutting Judith out.

Yeah, I'm workin' on that.

We think editorial

should run something.

I just heard somebody say

they're workin' on that.

Well, if the White House is

gonna take a stance like that,

don't you think we

should plant a flag?

Did you see Sheehan at the

Kissinger press conference?

No.

What about the Al Haig thing?

No, Times sent the new kid.

New kid.

You think Sheehan's

onto something.

Yeah.

Well, Neil has been

known to disappear,

No, no, no, I'm telling you

he has something.

You want me to do

a little digging?

No, that's below your pay grade.

Intern!

You uh, workin' on anything

important, chief?

Uh, no, Mr. Bradlee.

Well, everything we do is

important...at The Post.

Here's $40, I want you

to take the first train

up to New York

and go to the--

go to The Times building on 43rd-

don't tell 'em who you work for

but find a reporter

by the name of Sheehan.

Uh, Neil Sheehan?

Yeah, yeah, find out what

Neil Sheehan is workin' on.

Is that legal?

Well, what is it you think we

do here for a living, kid?

-Get a receipt for the tickets.

-Yeah.

-Morning, Mrs. Graham.

-Morning.

Hello, morning everybody.

-Morning, nice to see you.

-Mrs. Graham.

-Morning.

-Morning, Arthur.

Hello.

So, everyone's here.

-How are you--my Galahad?

-Morning.

Thank you.

And I used to be the only one

who brought his homework to class.

I think we're all here,

should we get started?

Didn't you crash the

wedding of Nixon's

other daughter to get a story?

Well, I did get a story, but

I didn't crash Julie's wedding.

No, no, just the

reception afterwards.

There is a distinction.

Not to the father of the bride,

he's paying for play.

I think the American people

are paying for play.

Great, let's do

a story about that.

-Yeah, let's--

-Judith should crash again.

I didn't crash Julie's wedding.

What would you call it, Judith?

Well, I would call it

depth reportage.

All right, come on,

come on, everybody.

How are we gonna cover

this Nixon-Cox wedding?

Uh, who else is gonna be there?

-Oh, here.

-Judith's got the guest list.

No, I mean the other press?

Well, The Times, The Sun, The Globe,

all the international papers.

All right.

So, we-we-we call them,

we call all of them and uh,

we say Nixon has shut us out

and then we ask them

for their notes.

Ben, there's no way in hell

anyone's gonna give me a fill.

No, they'll...i-it'll be an

act of solidarity--

they'll be defending

the first amendment.

We'll tell them that the only way

to protect the right to publish

is to publish.

I don't understand, you said

we'd set the price at $27.

No, we said there was a range.

and the demand on the

road show us soft.

Why not set it at $26?

Or 25 even?

Well, Paul, we feel that

setting the price at

24.50 would be

more prudent.

It's just a couple of bucks.

It's not just a couple of bucks,

it's 1.35 million shares...

so, it is...

Th-Three million.

Over three million dollars

less--that's a lot to a newspaper.

I mean, how many

reporters is that?

-It's-It's twenty-five--

-Let's not get bogged down...

-It has to be quite a few.

-At least a dozen. Fritz?

It's uh, twenty-five reporters--

Twenty-five reporters?

Twenty-five reporters.

Gentlemen, we know it's not ideal,

but a few of our investors balked

at the nature of the company.

They don't like newspapers?

They like Gannett

and Knight and Ridder

but...frankly they're

concerned about

your ability to turn

a serious profit.

Gannett and Knight and Ridder

own monopoly papers

in smaller markets

-that's why they're more profitable.

-Mmm.

The whole point of the

offering is to grow--

while investing in the

quality of the paper.

Kay and I have talked

a great deal about this.

And we believe that

improving quality

will naturally lead

to greater profitability.

-Unfortunate.

-More than unfortunate.

Does this happen all the time?

Bankers lowering the price

for their institutional investors?

Fritz, isn't this what we discussed?

I think the family should

consider giving up some control--

maybe another board seat.

Absolutely not.

This isn't a surprise, Fritz--

ever since Phil's accident.

Arthur.

No offense, Kay,

it's unfortunate but...

The buyers are obviously skittish

about having a woman in charge

and it's-it's not like

it's an easy sell--

it's a local paper with modest

margins, modest ambitions.

I think Mr. Bradlee would take

issue with that characterization.

Sure, she pads his budget.

Amelia, call my office, tell them I'm

gonna miss my lunch at Occidental.

Of course, Mr. Parsons.

Another dozen

reporters for what?

To nip at the heels of The Times?

So we can pretend like we're even

remotely in the same league?

Make it a 5:
00 drink at

The Jefferson.

Arthur, Kay was right,

Lazard is just trying to

-Come on.

-cut a better deal by squeezing us.

-Why do you think that is?

-Because they're bankers

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