For decades, Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham stood out as a powerhouse woman in the boys club of political journalism. But in the new media world of plummeting newspaper circulation and flourishing Internet outlets, the paper and other traditional news titans are struggling to keep up as blogs and news aggregators, like the Huffington Post, rise in popularity.

The Huffington Post surpassed WashingtonPost.com in unique visitors in September, 9.4 million to 9.2 million, according to data from Nielsen Online. Compared to September 2008, that represents a 26 percent increase for the Huffington Post and a 29 percent drop for WashingtonPost.com.

Graham, who assumed her first executive role at the newspaper in 1963 and remained a leader until her death in 2001, knew well the challenges of uncovering a big story; she was publisher when the Washington Post made its name with the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. But current publisher Katharine Weymouth, Graham’s granddaughter, has to focus on more than just quality of reporting, as the entire newspaper industry struggles with the question of how to make money from online content. The paper’s earnings dropped by 77 percent from 2007 to 2008, plunging from $288.6 million to $65.7 million.

Another female media mogul, meanwhile, has harnessed the power of the Internet to develop a nontraditional site that has become one of the online news world’s biggest names.

Arianna Huffington launched the Huffington Post in 2005 with co-founders Kenneth Lerer and Jonah Peretti. Forbes ranked Huffington No. 12 on its 2009 list of the most influential women in media and lauded Huffington for creating a site that relies on content written by many well-known contributors, from senators to movie stars. The Huffington Post is No. 1 at Technorati, which ranks blogs by how often they are linked from other sites.

In testimony this May before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, Huffington detailed the difference between her vision of the future of journalism and the type of journalism that reigned during the Washington Post’s heyday.

"Can anyone seriously argue that this isn't a magnificent time for readers who can surf the net, use search engines, and go to news aggregators to access the best stories from countless sources around the world -- stories that are up-to-the-minute, not rolled out once a day?" she said. "Online news also allows users to immediately comment on stories, as well as interact and form communities with other commenters."

Graham may not have seen this new type of journalism as a purely positive step, however. The Washington Post has long prided itself on enterprising investigative journalism, while the Huffington Post, with only a few dozen full-time employees, often relies on the reporting of other news organizations.

And Huffington embraces her site's liberal inclination. In her congressional testimony, Huffington decried the "false view of 'balance' and the misguided notion that every story has two sides."