Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, BUYS The Washington Post as an individual!
Jeff Bezos, 49, the founder of Amazon.com, is buying The Washington Post and other newspapers for $250 million in a deal announced today!
Yeah, it surprised me too! 
Bezos was an early pioneer of online shopping, first selling books out of his garage and then selling “EVERYTHING” else! The most recent estimates of his net worth by Forbes magazine are around $25 billion. His purchase of The Washington Post is as an individual, and Amazon.com is not involved. Like most newspapers, The Washington Post has been losing value as its advertisers have flocked to the Internet, and the newspaper has been forced to cut its newsroom staff repeatedly and close several bureaus. The Washington Post, for those of us old enough to remember, is the newspaper that broke the news of the Watergate scandal!
In a letter to Post employees, Bezos announced that he would be keeping his “day job” as Amazon CEO, but that there would be changes coming. According to SFGate.com:
“The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs,” Bezos wrote. “There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment.”
Washington Post Co. chairman and CEO Donald Graham called Bezos a “uniquely good new owner.” He said the decision was made after years of newspaper industry challenges. The company, which owns the Kaplan college and test preparation business along with six TV stations, will change its name but didn’t say what the new name will be.
Bezos said in a statement that he understands the Post’s “critical role” in Washington and said its values won’t change.
“The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners,” Bezos said in his letter to Post employees.
The newspaper’s publisher and CEO, Katharine Weymouth, will remain in her position and has asked other senior managers to stay on, as well. She is a member of the Graham family that has owned the paper since 1933. SFGae.com continues:
“Mr. Bezos knows as well as anyone the opportunities that come with revolutionary technology when we understand how to make the most of it,” she said in a letter to readers. “Under his ownership and with his management savvy, we will be able to accelerate the pace and quality of innovation.”
The news surprised industry observers and the newspaper’s employees. An email at 4:17 pm Eastern time summoned employees to a meeting at 4:30!
-Bill at
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