I had no idea about the backstory with Breathed. This makes me sad as Berke Breathed is such an amazingly nice guy.

In college, I designed a t-shirt for one of our tours based on Bill the Cat. I wrote Breathed to ask his permission to use the character. We weren't going to make any money off of this, but just thought it would be fun. His wife wrote me back to say how pleased she was that someone would even reach out and ask - apparently, this isn't typically the case.

She said they had no problem with us using my drawing of Bill. I had no idea I should have been writing WaPo.

I knew he quit the Post but never knew the reason. Bloom County was so far ahead of its time that nothing I can think of currently has caught up. It was absolutely brilliant and I miss it!

-David

In the early 1980s, Doonesbury took an enormous vacation (18 months?). The WaPo decided it needed a comic to fill the spot (aside: the Washington Post comics page is the BEST I have EVER SEEN -- THREE full pages of comics!).

So they hired Berkeley Breathed, a no-name artist who had a comic at his college's newspaper (somewhere in Texas). His main character was a frat boy, Steve Dallas. He had a hound dog who morphed into being Opus in Bloom County.

He was told to make a comic without word balloons, just the single line (a la Doonesbury), so it would fill the slot nicely. But -- key point -- he was a hired hand. The Post itself owned the comic. Milo and all the kids, Bill the Cat, Opus, and all the rest of them were the sole property of the Post, not Breathed. He didn't reap the full benefit of all those Opus dolls sold, to put it another way.

This is why he eventually quit the strip, too.

If you can find a used copy online, look for the book of Breathed's college comic strip -- it's hilarious! He had a gay college football player, long before anyone had even contemplated such a thing in popular culture.

Anyway, yes, the Post company also owns Kaplan. And you're right, it's a cash cow for them, although not so much anymore (the feds are trying to crack down on for-profit education, which is hitting Kaplan hard).

-CW

Nnnnnoooooo!!!!

Doesn't WaPo also own Kaplan as well? I think online learning was one of their major revenue sources

The question David Brooks really should be asking is, if he thought it was interesting, why would it matter to him if it were written by a 12-year old?

Perhaps the 12-year old knows something he doesn't.

He is just horrible. Almost everything I read by him makes me cringe.

Don't get me wrong -- I often enjoy reading columns by David Brooks. He attempts to be a centrist voice on the Right, and this often leads him into amusing pretzel-bends of logic which are entertaining to read.

Hahahaha ... ok, point to you, sir! You came up with a good reason to read Brooks ... I didn't think that was possible.

Ok, I won't bash Brooks anymore. As fun as it is :)

This is a great column, CW. Have you ever heard of Clayton Christensen or "The Innovator's Dilemma"?

http://csinvesting.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/the_innovators_dilemma.pdf

In a nutshell, his thesis is that innovation often comes from the bottom, not the top. That is, someone comes up with something which is almost as good but costs a lot less and this virtually wipes out what had existed before.

This is what has happened to news. Bloggers are faster, more interesting, less expensive and often just as good as mainstream journalists.

While a little may be sacrificed in terms of quality (debatable), the trade off isn't worth it for the market to pay more. At least in most cases. Traditional media is still trying to figure this out.

Anyways, Christensen is interesting because his ideas basically saved Intel. Quite likely a number of other companies as well.

-David

Oh, I could give you a whole long list of reasons for your WICBMTEVFDFA board.

But being that you are already there, what would be the point?? :D

I think you're right, the newspaper itself (and, I think, the WashingtonPost.com website) was the only corporate entity sold. The WaPo empire itself is a separate thing. What I wonder is what will happen to the syndicates, as Washington Post Writers Group has a pretty deep stable. Also, comics -- because one of the most important entities owned (lock, stock, and almost all of the characters except for Steve Dallas) by a WaPo corporate tentacle is "Bloom County." Look on the tag of every single "Opus" doll you've ever seen -- it lists a WaPo syndicate as owner of all rights.

Michale -

Chalk up another mark on my "Why I Cannot Bring Myself To Ever Vote For DiFi Again" board... thanks for the info, I think I had heard this one, but it's good to be reminded now and again...

:-)

-CW

Feinstein: You’re Not A Real Journalist Unless You Draw A Salary
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/why-sen-feinstein-wrong-about-whos-real-reporter

Our politicians also seem to be stuck in that same type of archaic and medieval thinking...