Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post. Or, as the WaPo has it today, "After decades of presiding over The Washington Post, the Graham family
quietly and quickly maneuvered a deal with Jeff Bezos to give the
newspaper what they believe is its best shot at success." Whew. I'm so relieved to learn the Graham family was behind this, not Bezos. THEY offered their paper to HIM. He didn't go begging to buy it, he just agreed to take it off their hands before they lose their shirts*. And for billionaire Bezos, isn't $250 million something like chump change? It'll still take about 60 days for the check to clear the bank, but we're sure it will.
We on the outskirts of the village are happy to learn that "nothing will change." Katherine Graham's granddaughter (the one who came up with the idea of having important people PAY THEM to eat dinner at their house so as to, um....what?) will still be the publisher, and Charles Krauthammer will still be around on Fridays to give us his right-wing views (notice they announced this on Monday).
*stuffed
Since Bezos is not obsessed with turning a profit, this may be the paper's best chance to survive as an authentic news reporting organization.
ReplyDeleteHaven't thought about the Grahams since I read Katherine Graham's bio awhile back. Didn't even know they still owned the paper - good to keep up via your blog! The D.N.
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