The State of Co-branding

The co-branding arrangement between Bob Woodward and his home base, The Washington Post, illustrates the classic symbiotic relationship between star professionals and their "homebase" firms.  When The Post's competing newspaper, The New York Times, leaked Woodward's new book, State of Denial, before The Post could begin its own promotional campaign, I thought we'd hear an ugly war of words that might weaken a rather delicate balance between two brands -- the Post's formidable brand versus the individual brand of arguably the biggest star reporter that ever lived.  The headline in today's New York Times is called "A Reporter Who Scoops His Own Paper," (registration may be required) calling Woodward "a hood ornament on the enterprise." Uh oh, I thought.

Instead, in that article I read about Woodward's praise for The Post, calling it "a great newspaper," that has "the best owners and the best editors."  He declared, "being there helps me a lot and . . . I do my best to help them in return."

One has to wonder if Woodward and The Post will have to renegotiate the conditions of his being housed under the tent.  Woodward could just walk away and be a solo brand -- an independent book author like David McCullough or Doris Kearns Goodwin.  This is beginning to look like the case of the star practitioner whose work and reputation ceases to provide benefits to the enterprise.  Woodward's praiseworthy comments about The Post remind us that even stars like a constellation of lesser lights against which to shine more brightly. 

But are his nice public comments enough?  What else should a star professional like Woodward do when it's starting to look like the brand has outgrown its home?