Amazon's CEO to buy Washington Post for $250M

[Synthaholic]

Amazon's CEO to buy Washington Post for $250M

Jeff Bezos himself is buying the newspaper publishing side of the Washington Post Co., including its flagship publication but not its most high-profile digital assets.






Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.com, entered an agreement with the Washington Post Co. Monday to buy its newspaper publishing businesses for $250 million, including its flagship newspaper after decades of family ownership.


The purchaser is an entity that belongs to Bezos and is not Amazon.com.


It follows other indications of Bezos' interest in news. He made a $5 million investment in Web news publication Business Insider earlier this year, and Amazon last week published a long-form Q&A with President Barack Obama on its Kindle Singles platform.



In a release, Washington Post Co. Chairman and CEO Donald E. Graham praised Bezos, saying that his "proven technology and business genius, his long-term approach, and his personal decency make him a uniquely good new owner for the Post."


Bezos said he understands "the critical role the Post plays" in the nation's capital and for the country as a whole.


"The Post's values will not change," he said. "Our duty to readers will continue to be the heart of the Post, and I am very optimistic about the future."


Though the deal includes the Post and other traditional publishing properties, it doesn't include more digital-leaning assets in the company's portfolio, like Slate magazine and TheRoot.com. The Washington Post Co. that remains after selling its namesake publication -- which includes Kaplan, Post-Newsweek Stations and Cable ONE -- will be changing its name because of the sale. The new name hasn't been released.

 

[blastoff]

Another lefty rag struggling to stay afloat. Maybe Bozo should hire Tina Brown to drive it into the ground, right next to the Newsweek grave.

Washington Post sold to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos for $250 million

Like many newspapers in the Internet era, the Post has struggled to maintain its print circulation — and has watched its profits dwindle. Its daily circulation fell 8.3 percent during the fourth quarter of 2012 and first quarter of 2013. The Post now has a daily circulation of 473,000 copies, making it the seventh largest newspaper in America, but just three years ago its circulation was 578,482. As for profits, they plummeted 83 percent during the first quarter of this year.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Bezos is fucked because he's hanging on to the Progressive business model of alienating any potential reader to the right of Mao

 

[whitehall]

What do you know. The once venerable Washington Post is sold for chump change to a corporate tycoon and the bi-polar left isn't concerned.

 

[Synthaholic]

Bezos is fucked because he's hanging on to the Progressive business model of alienating any potential reader to the right of Mao

I'm sure he'll miss the money you don't pay for the Washington Post.

 

[Bill Angel]

Bezos is fucked because he's hanging on to the Progressive business model of alienating any potential reader to the right of Mao

On the other hand, one way that he might try to make the newspaper profitable would be to fire the current staff of journalists and outsource their jobs to Communist China.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

My old boss paid $1B for an NFL team that loses $20-30MM annually.

Some people just have bigger toys than most of us

 

[Trajan]

if I recall the Koch bros were rumored to be considering buying the LA Times, and the employees, the mayor of the city were up in arms, threatening to quit, the mayor opposing it.......

wheres the newsroom and general outrage here? Oh wait, right, birds of a feather....no, theres no media bias here... my lord.

 

[JoeB131]

Bezos is fucked because he's hanging on to the Progressive business model of alienating any potential reader to the right of Mao

Actually, Bezos is more like one of you guys.

He didn't want to pay for airconditioning for Amazon's Warehouse.

So he just paid to have a paramedic on sight to treat the inevitable case of heat stroke.

Sweet.

The real problem with newspapers is that they are an obsolete business model.

Newspapers get their revenues from two sources.

People buying newspapers, which young people by and large don't do. They look up news on the internet.

People buying classified ads for $10.00 a line. Why do that when you can do that for free on Craig's List?

I stopped buying the Chicago newspapers (Trib and Sun-Times) about five years ago. (Again, this would be about the time my job screwed me and I stopped being a Republican).But I did pick up a copy when they recently featured a profile of the company I work for. Frankly, it was awful. No-substance stories, smaller paper, and generally useless.

Newspapers are dying, and frankly, it will be one of those cases where you'll just be glad to see the suffering end.

 

[JoeB131]

if I recall the Koch bros were rumored to be considering buying the LA Times, and the employees, the mayor of the city were up in arms, threatening to quit, the mayor opposing it.......

wheres the newsroom and general outrage here? Oh wait, right, birds of a feather....no, theres no media bias here... my lord.

Actually, there's a lot of outrage.

The Post Sale: An Indefinable Sense of Loss | RealClearPolitics

Bob Woodward Saddened by ?Washington Post? Sale to Jeff Bezos - The Daily Beast

There were a lot yesterday, as well.

But mostly, as I said, Newspapers are dying. No one buys them anymore. It may or may not be a good thing.

 

[editec]

Ink on paper publishing?

How quaint!

 

[Trajan]

if I recall the Koch bros were rumored to be considering buying the LA Times, and the employees, the mayor of the city were up in arms, threatening to quit, the mayor opposing it.......

wheres the newsroom and general outrage here? Oh wait, right, birds of a feather....no, theres no media bias here... my lord.

Actually, there's a lot of outrage.

The Post Sale: An Indefinable Sense of Loss | RealClearPolitics

Bob Woodward Saddened by ?Washington Post? Sale to Jeff Bezos - The Daily Beast

There were a lot yesterday, as well.

But mostly, as I said, Newspapers are dying. No one buys them anymore. It may or may not be a good thing.

theres a huge difference between outrage and remorse or dissecting reasons. maybe you should go read some of the missives sent out by LA Post employees, their meetings, the mayors comments etc. it was clear cut advocacy angst....I read the real clear article before you posted it, not even close.