Tag: Jeff Bezos

The End Was Baked In When Bezos Bought the Washington Post

Buck Banks

“I finally concluded that I could provide runway—financial runway—because I don’t think you can keep shrinking the business. You can be profitable and shrinking. And that’s a survival strategy, but it ultimately leads to irrelevance, at best. And, at worst, it leads to extinction.”

— Jeff Bezos, quoted by the New Yorker, in 2013, on why he purchased the Washington Post.

It’s Twilight for the Washington Post

Buck Banks

“It would be nice if some other billionaire would buy the Post from Bezos. But that’s not going to happen as long as we live in an authoritarian context, because owning a media company is not safe unless you are a supplicant to the regime. … All of which leaves us in a bad place. The free market will not save the Post, because its owner is immune to market signals. Politics will not save the Post, because so long as Republican voters demand authoritarianism, no one can own a media outlet without taking on outsized risk. As sad as it is to admit, the Washington Post is beyond help.”

— Jonathan Last

Washington Post Cancellations Hit 250,000 — 10% of Subscribers

Buck Banks

250,000

The Washington Post has now had more than 250,000 cancellations — approximately 10% of all paid circulation — since the newspaper made its decision to not endorse in the presidential race, NPR reports. The Guardian: “The numbers are based on the number of cancellation emails that have been sent out, according to a source at the paper, though the subscriber dashboard is no longer viewable to employees.”

Don’t Count on Bezos and the Oligarchs to Save Democracy

Buck Banks

“If there ever were an incident that stands for the proposition that democracy, and journalism, cannot rest on the shoulders of oligarchs, this is it. Bezos did a lot of good for the Post when he first took it over, but the consent of the billionaire is not a stable structure for newspapers or magazines in an authoritarian era. Eventually, they can be counted upon to protect themselves, and that may sometimes mean not speaking the truth—either by lying or, as here, just by not speaking at all.”

— Benjamin Wittes

Former WaPo Editor Calls Bezos’ Refusal to Endorse ‘Cowardice’

Buck Banks

“This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. Donald Trump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner Jeff Bezos (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”

— Former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron, on X, on the newspaper’s decision to not endorse in the election.