Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James R. Conner.

 

5 August 2013

Thoughts on the sale of the Washington Post

I no longer buy printed newspapers or magazines, have not for several years, and never again will do so on a subscription basis. I get my news from online publications, including the New York Times. I read the online Washington Post, but I don’t have a subscription to it.

Still, I was startled today upon learning that the Washington Post, a publicly traded business largely controlled by the Graham family, is selling the newspaper (and some related holdings) for $250 million to Jeff Bezos, a billionaire best known as the founder and head honcho of Amazon. My first thought: how fast is Katharine Graham spinning in her grave?

Upon further thought, I found I wasn’t that surprised. A decade ago, the Post might have fetched $2 billion, but the printed paper’s been losing circulation and advertising revenue, and the online edition of the paper, while excellent, does not generate enough revenue to offset the losses of the printed paper. The Grahams and the other stockholders, realizing they couldn’t stop the bleeding, decided to cash out now, while the Post still had some value. One can hardly blame them.

Bezos is worth $25 billion, so he has resources the Grahams, et al, did not. That gives him the time and flexibility he’ll need to stabilize the situation while the Post finishes its transition from a printed to a digital publication. That will happen sooner than many will expect, perhaps in a decade or less, and it will happen not only to the Post but to the vast majority of newspapers, including Kalispell’s Daily InterLake and the Flathead Beacon.

Bezos doesn’t need to make a profit if he’s willing to accept, and can afford, losses. He’s his only shareholder, so his only responsibility is to himself. He can, if he wants, turn the Post into a propaganda organ for his pet issues and peculiar beliefs, if such beliefs exist. Or, if he wants, he can run the Post to make a profit with honor, or for honor alone, options not open to publicly traded businesses. For that we should be grateful, for great newspapers and publications cannot exist under the constraints of public ownership.

I doubt we’ll see many changes at the Post for the next year or so. But in time, Bezos will replace the current managers. And he should. If they couldn’t find a light at the end of the tunnel under the Grahams, they’re not likely to find it under Bezos.

In the meantime, I’ll be watching to see whether and how the Post, as the leading newspaper in Washington D.C., the seat of our federal government, discharges its special responsibility to cover national news widely, in depth, and with political independence. I’ll also be watching, but with slightly less interest, to see whether some of the hacks on the editorial page are replaced.

And finally, I’ll be watching to see whether I want to purchase a digital subscription to the Post. At this point, I don’t.