Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company) is a diversified Americans conglomerate holding company. Headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware, it was formerly the owner of The Washington Post newspaper and Newsweek magazine.
Its current holdings include the digital marketing company Code3 (formerly SocialCode); online and print media entities including Slate Magazine, Foreign Policy through the FP Group, which includes Foreign Policy magazine and ForeignPolicy.com), Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations), a group of seven television stations; education company Kaplan; manufacturing operations including Hoover Treated Wood Products, Dekko, Joyce/Dayton Corp, Forney Corporation;Steven Mufson, Graham Healthcare Group, which provides home health, hospice and palliative care services through joint ventures with health systems and physicians groupsHolly Vossel, as well as other services; Graham Automotive, which includes eight automotive dealerships around the Washington, D.C. region; and content and marketplace company World of Good Brands (formerly Leaf Group).Ana Lucía Murillo,Sara Fischer, Graham Holdings Company also owned cable television and internet service provider Cable One until it was spun off in 2015
Descendants of the late Eugene Meyer (including Chairman Donald E. Graham, his sister Lally Weymouth, and the beneficiaries of various family trusts) collectively control the company through their ownership of the unlisted Class A common stock that selects 70% of the company's board of directors. it forms more than 90% of the family's assets. Prior to 2014, Berkshire Hathaway was a substantial holder of the public Class B common stock that selects 30% of the company's board of directors, but exchanged most of that stock for WPLG-TV, one of Graham Holdings' television stations, and other assets, in 2014.Graham Holdings: 2014 Annual Report (available on GHCO.com)
Since 1950, the company had been based in the Washington Post building in Washington, D.C., which was sold off separately in 2014. Its new headquarters are at 1300 North 17th Street in Arlington, Virginia, with the choice of state motivated (according to Don Graham) by the proximity to Congress and the fact that two of the holding's activity areas, education and health care, are subject to federal regulation.
In 1984, The Washington Post Company purchased Stanley H. Kaplan Education Centers, Ltd., a Brooklyn-based tutoring company which in subsequent decades would grow its footprint and expand its offerings beyond test prep to become Kaplan, Inc.David A. Vise,
On August 5, 2013, it was announced that the Washington Post Company would sell the flagship newspaper for $250 million to Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com. The Washington Post Company agreed to adopt a new corporate name once the sale was finalized. It adopted Graham Holdings Company as the new name effective November 29, 2013. Wilgoren, Debbi. "Washington Post Co. Renamed Graham Holdings Company to Mark Sale of Newspaper." Washington Post. November 18, 2013. Accessed November 18, 2013. Amazon.com was not involved in the sale. Nash Holdings LLC, a company owned by Bezos, closed the purchase of the newspaper and affiliated publications on October 1, 2013. Graham Holdings Company retained ownership of WaPo Labs, its technology innovation group, since rebranded as Trove.
In 2014, Tim O'Shaughnessy, founder of LivingSocial and a son-in-law of CEO Don Graham, joined GHC as president. O'Shaughnessy became CEO in November 2015.
In November 2014, Graham Holdings said it would spin off Cable ONE as a separate, publicly traded company in 2015. The spin-off was completed on July 1, 2015.
In March 2018, Graham sold Kaplan University, Kaplan's online higher education operation, to the Purdue University system, and it was rebranded Purdue University Global, a new public university to serve adult learners.Kirk Carapezza,
In 2019, children's podcasting company Pinna spun out of the Slate Group as a separate Graham Holdings subsidiary.
In June 2021, Graham Holdings completed their acquisition of Leaf Group at a valuation of approximately $323 million.
Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.
WJXT | 4 (42) | 1953 | Independent | |
WCWJ | 17 (34) | 2017 | The CW | |
WKMG-TV | 6 (26) | 1997 | CBS | |
WDIV-TV | 4 (45) | 1978 | NBC | |
KPRC-TV | 2 (35) | 1994 | NBC | |
KSAT-TV | 12 (12) | 1994 | ABC | |
WSLS-TV | 10 (30) | 2017 | NBC | |
Graham Holdings Company also owns several companies active in various capacities on the World Wide Web. These include The Slate Group, which publishes Slate, Slate V, ForeignPolicy.com and World of Good Brands (formerly the Leaf Group).Kayleigh Barber,"The Washington Post Company Announces The Slate Group." Washington Post. June 4, 2008. The Root, an online magazine focusing on African American culture, was owned by The Slate Group until Graham Holdings sold it to Univision Communications in 2015. Graham Holdings Company also owns SocialCode, an advertising agency specializing in social media/ID-based marketing, and is an investor in Pinna, a children's podcast company.
In November 2014, Graham Holdings Company acquired Social News Desk, a social media management platform for newsrooms, through its subsidiary, Graham Media Group.
In June 2021, Graham Holdings acquired Leaf Group, a consumer internet company that runs both online consumer-orientated brands and marketplace brands. In 2023, the Leaf Group was restructured to become World of Good Brands, separating Leaf's lifestyle publishing websites – Well+Good, Livestrong, Hunker and OnlyInYourState — from its marketplace businesses, Saatchi Art and Society6. In 2024, Hunker was sold to Static Media. In 2025, Graham sold off Well+Good and Livestrong to Ziff Davis and Only In Your State to Launch Potato. After the sales, the World of Good Brands ceased and all staff in the division were laid off.
In 2014, Graham Holdings bought a majority stake in Troy, Michigan-based Residential Healthcare Group, the parent company of Residential Home Health and Residential Hospice, which provides at-home and on-site health care and hospice services in Michigan and Illinois. Harrison, J.D. "Graham Holdings wades deeper into residential health care business." Washington Post. July 3, 2014. Accessed October 17, 2015.
Graham Healthcare Group provides home health, hospice and palliative care services through joint ventures with health systems and physicians groups. The subsidiary designs business and technology solutions aimed at streamlining hospice and home health operations and improving quality of care. Graham Healthcare Group includes Residential Healthcare Group, Allegheny Health Network-Healthcare @ Home, Mary Free Bed at Home, Clarus and InTeliCare.
Graham Healthcare Group also operates a nationwide specialty pharmacy licensed in 38 states that serves patients suffering from chronic illness through its Clinical Specialty Infusions, LLC (CSI Pharmacy) business located in Texarkana, Texas. Through its Clarus Care, LLC (Clarus) business in Nashville, Tennessee, GHG provides call management solutions to physician groups and hospitals.
In June 2014, Graham Holdings acquired Joyce/Dayton Corp., a Dayton, Ohio-based manufacturer of and other linear-motion systems. "Graham Holdings acquires Joyce/Dayton Corp." Today's Energy Solutions. June 2, 2014. Accessed October 17, 2015.
In November 2015, Graham Holdings acquired Group Dekko, a Garrett, Indiana-based electrical manufacturer. "Graham Holdings Acquires Group Dekko." Business Wire. November 13, 2015. Accessed June 19, 2016.
In 2017, Graham acquired Hoover Treated Wood Products, Inc, a supplier of lumber and plywood products for fire retardant and preservative applications.
In May 2020, Graham Holdings announced that it had acquired Framebridge. "Graham Holdings Acquires Framebridge." Citybizlist. May 15, 2020. Accessed 2020-16-05.
Kaplan today offers a variety of test preparation, professional training, career development, language training, university and student support services.
Kaplan has over 10,000 employees in 27 countries, and partners include more than 12,000 businesses and 4000 educational institutions.
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