Bezos is killing The Washington Post

Jeff Bezos is richer than God. He owns The Washington Post, formerly an icon of objective journalism.

“Jeff Bezos could float almost limitless news organization losses forever and barely notice. What we’re seeing is something that should be familiar to any close of observer of the news over the last generation. Let’s call it the formulaic billionaire white knight press baron doom cycle.

 

“Our guy comes in as a White Knight. He solves every problem because money is no issue. The readers and the staff are happy and, because of that, the billionaires happy. The press watchers at the universities are happy. Everybody’s happy. It’s a for-profit operation and the buyer doesn’t want to lose money but it’s not a money-making purchase. The operation is purchased as a kind of public trust. He’s signed up as the protector and custodian of a public asset.”

The WaPo isn’t a slow-motion suicide. It’s murder. What newspaper kills its sports section? Bezos killed the WaPo sports page. I don’t even read the sports pages in newspapers and I understand that.

My wife still subscribes to and reads the WaPo. I got off that bus when Bezos pivoted to Trump, refusing to endorse Harris and making the editorial page more Trump-friendly.

Look, the Trump GOP doesn’t read newspapers anyway, so why pander to them?

“It turns out the innovation and scale mumbo-jumbo isn’t really working. It’s not making any new people want to read your paper and you’re seriously bumming out your readership which, somewhat like your employers, you’re beginning to feel a certain level of resentment toward. That readership was already in at least longterm decline. Now you’re actually driving people away. And the new people, to the extent they exist and aren’t bought as commodity eyeballs, aren’t remotely filling the gap. Your staff meanwhile are increasingly angry and resentful. The ones who can are already leaving. And screw them anyway, right? If they want to self-cut, let them. That just helps with the bottom line.

 

“At some point the billionaire realizes that as awesome as efficiencies and scale and serving the underserved middle is … well, this isn’t working. Who are we fooling? The billionaire can see that if he’s self-made. Give him his due. It turns out this is hard. And this is the kicker: He’s bored. This isn’t fun.

 

“So the answer is: fuck this whole thing. The staff sucks. The readership sucks. This is when the self-immolation cuts start.”

There’s plenty of media out there that doesn’t bend the knee to Trump and still do objective journalism. So f*** the WaPo. I’ve taken my eyeballs and money elsewhere.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/do-you-speak-billionaire-and-other-stories-from-the-fall-of-the-washington-post/sharetoken/52e7c502-5c2f-4773-8e77-a8bacddbfcf0

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