Stilson Hutchins already had a background in newspapers when he arrived in Washington, D.C. His goal was to publish a paper that captured the political climate of the capital. The Washington Post was first published by Hutchins on December 6, 1877.

The modern newspaper and corporation traces itself back to the depths of the depression when an investment banker named Eugene Meyer purchased the bankrupt paper at an auction for $825,000 on June 1, 1933. Meyer had the discipline and resources to turn the paper around (it would initially lose $4,492,540 between Meyer's purchase and the end of 1937) and he handed control and ownership to his daughter Katherine and her husband Philip Graham in 1948 upon his appointment as President of the World Bank. Graham consolidated the Post's position as the leading morning newspaper in Washington, began diversifying into radio and television stations, and purchased Newsweek in 1961.