The Washington Post Co.'s "anti-paywall stance," plus its "self-destructive" financial course -- giving shareholders higher dividends and buybacks while gutting the paper's newsroom -- add up to a "weakened" paper "under continual threat," writes Ryan Chittum. "By handing all that cash back to shareholders while disinvesting in its newspaper, the company is effectively saying that spending money on the hallowed Post is like throwing it down the rathole—it sees no possibility of making a return on any net investment there," writes Chittum in this detailed critique.