Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com)
Source: Washington Post
The Washington Post Co. has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos, ending the Graham familys stewardship of one of Americas leading news organizations after four generations.
Bezos, whose entrepreneurship has made him one of the worlds richest men, will pay $250 million in cash for The Post and affiliated publications to the Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses.
Seattle-based Amazon will have no role in the purchase; Bezos himself will buy the news organization and become its sole owner when the sale is completed, probably within 60 days. The Post Co. will change to a new, still-undecided name and continue as a publicly traded company without The Post thereafter.
The deal represents a sudden and stunning turn of events for The Post, Washingtons leading newspaper for decades and a powerful force in shaping the nations politics and policy. Few people were aware that a sale was in the works for the paper, whose reporters have broken such stories as the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate scandals and disclosures about the National Security Administrations surveillance program in May.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/washington-post-to-be-sold-to-jeff-bezos/2013/08/05/ca537c9e-fe0c-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html
Oh great... The CEO of the Walmart of Internet sales buys the pro-Pentagon, pro-big business WaPo to lobby for his company.
What could go wrong?
budkin
(6,714 posts)I was playing around on the internet today and discovered that the recent buyers of the major print newspapers are major contributors to Democratic candidates and the DNC.
Jeff Bezos- Amazon- Washington Post
John W. Henry- Boston Red Sox- Boston Globe ( for a steal from the NYT*).
*Sorry baseball fans- couldn't resist.
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)This has been happening for years. Bezos is just the latest guy to by a propaganda arm for his oligarchy.
Warpy
(111,339 posts)is a good idea and I'm delighted it's happening. Media conglomerates found they were too low profit to be effective cash cows and gutted them. Maybe this will start reversing the process, even though we can't count on anything sensible on the editorial page.
Zen Democrat
(5,901 posts)pscot
(21,024 posts)on my kindle.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)and ended Nixon's political career.
Sadly, Woodward did not live up to his promising career.
Christopher Hitchens accused Woodward of acting as "stenographer to the rich and powerful."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Woodward#cite_note-40
wonder where Woodward will go now....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Woodward#cite_note-40
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)The Washington Post is our local paper and it's been a total disappointment to us for the 23 years we've lived in Maryland. With one exception: it has good comic pages and a great editorial cartoonist, Tom Toles.
The Post has been losing money for years; the company was bolstered by the earnings from Kaplan.
One can just hope, and cross fingers, that by some miracle it becomes more liberal.
Just Saying
(1,799 posts)I know he supported gay marriage and put his millions where his mouth is.
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/100-mph-crash.htm
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pledged $2.5 million to defend Washington's gay-marriage law, likely the largest political contribution to a gay-marriage campaign in the country.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Which has been dumping millions into Boehner's Congress.
Gay marriage is no longer a political barometer when it comes to big business. A lot of profit in gay marriage.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)pscot
(21,024 posts)He wants to build luxury resorts in orbital space, a clear indication he has too much money.
HardTimes99
(2,049 posts)catrose
(5,073 posts)I'll never have to read another article by Sally Quinn ever?
Although her byline accompanied by the department name "On Faith" was always rofl-worthy.
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)Yes, she IS rather full of herself, isn't she?
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Roselma
(540 posts)We probably won't see much change.
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)Last edited Mon Aug 5, 2013, 05:53 PM - Edit history (1)
Warren Buffett through Berkshire-Hathaway has long held a nearly 25% holding in the Washington Post so is this holding affected by this move. It also does not include Slate.com, a holding that has struggled every since Microsoft (I think) sold its share about 6-7 years ago.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Elon Musk vs. Jeff Bezos: Billionaires bid for NASA's space shuttle launchpad
By Mariella Moon posted Jul 24th, 2013
Here's an epic fight that won't take place inside the octagon: Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are apparently competing to take over a NASA launchpad... and instead of dishing out jiu-jitsu moves, they're letting money do the talking. In particular, the dotcom billionaires' space companies, Blue Origin and SpaceX, are bidding for Kennedy Space Center's historic Launch Complex 39A -- site of NASA's first and last space shuttle blast-off. Each company's plan for 39A is to launch both unmanned missions and shuttles carrying commercial customers and astronaut crews into space. Bezos' Blue Origin, however, also aims to turn it into a multi-use facility where other companies can launch their rockets for a price. NASA's keeping bidding details on the down low, but seeing as it wants to offload 39A in October to save money, we'll know soon enough who'll win this battle of the dollars.
VIA: The Verge
SOURCE: NBC News
BadGimp
(4,018 posts)re: "Oh great... The CEO of the Walmart of Internet sales buys the pro-Pentagon, pro-big business WaPo to lobby for his company.
What could go wrong?"
anymore I am not so sure. i'm a big Amazon customer and fan, but this concerns me not so much as it relates to Bezos as it portends the future of real journalisim...
thx for the post... (pun intended)
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Guess the decline started a long time ago. Still, amazing how fast they fall once the tipping point is reached.
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)Toles is wonderful and I hope they keep him in that position.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Actually, there are some good reporters, but the editorial line of the paper and the Publisher are way past their shelf life. Stale is a nice word for it. They say, a fish's brain rots first.
Same with the Grey Lady. She's next on the block.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)And by the way, WaPo recently went paywall. No more reading, say, Wonkblog (well, you can look at 10 posts a month).
totodeinhere
(13,059 posts)totodeinhere
(13,059 posts)workers at Amazon's low wage sweatshop distribution warehouses.
HardTimes99
(2,049 posts)break the story of the Pentagon Papers! The New York Times (Neil Sheehan) did.
Living in LA, I understand well the principle of self-puffery. But Jeez!
On a semi-serious note, this gives new meaning to the phrase 'vanity publishing'.