Powerhouse.

The purchase of Newsweek magazine by the Washington Post Company on 9 March 1961 created a formidable print-news company. The Washington Post, already powerful as the leading morning newspaper in the U.S. capital, bought the second most read newsmagazine in the country. In January 1961 Newsweek had a circulation of more than 1.4 million, second only to Henry Luce's Time.

Death of Astor.

Newsweek had been controlled by philanthropist Vincent Astor. On his death in 1959 his controlling 59 percent stock interest was transferred to the Astor Foundation, which soon began quietly to look for a buyer. The magazine had been founded in 1933 as News-Week. Astor had acquired his interest in 1937 through a merger with his magazine, Today.