Jeff Bezos, otherwise known as the founder of Amazon, just bought the Washington Post for $250 million in cash. For fans of the Washington Post, Amazon won’t have anything to do with the company, and the only influence Bezos will have on a day-to-day basis is that The Post Co. will change to a new name, which is currently undecided.
Amazon will not be involved because this was a personal purchase by Bezos, who made clear that he will not be leading the Post on a daily basis, and that the current team of leadership will remain on-board. The Post will continue life as a publicly traded company, just under that new, currently undecided name. Donald Graham, chief executive of the Post said that his family — who owned the Post for four generations — would not have dreamed of selling, but quietly shopped the organization around and began to think differently when Bezos was a potential buyer. Graham cited a long life as the reason to sell to Bezos, but explained that the Post could’ve continued living on its own. Selling to Bezos, however, gives the Post a greater chance at success.
Bezos, having never run a newspaper before — and quite frankly, running a business that sells a popular device that contributed to the decline of print — said that he is wading into uncharted territory, and that the Post will require some experimentation for a little while. He did note, though, that the values of the Post don’t need to change, so you don’t have to worry about the storied paper publishing lists featuring the best 26 moments from last night’s episode of New Girl.
Bezos will become the Posts’s only owner when the sale is completed, which is estimated to be around two months from now.
No comments:
Post a Comment