When Quality Leads to Profitability

In Spielberg’s The Post, bankers sit around a table with owner Katharine Graham in the middle, discussing taking The Washington Post public. They’re debating the price per share, with The Post’s team wanting to push the price up to $27 a share, whereas the bankers wanted it at $24.50. It’s a more than $3 million difference which “is five years’ salary for twenty-five good reporters.”

Despite not saying it aloud then, Graham has written on her notepad that an investment in quality will lead to profitability. By investing in great reporters, Graham, in the movie, believes that profitability will follow.