Tuesday, 06 August 2013 16:28

Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos buys the Washington Post

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Founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, bought one of the world's most respected newspaper publication, the famous Washington Post, for $250 million. He will pay with his own money, not the Amazon's, which obviously points out that Amazon will not have any business relationship with the newspaper, and Bezos himself said on this occasion that the publishing policy of the Washington Post will not change - all editors and all journalists remain in their positions until further notice.

 

Times are very bad for printed media since new generations read less and less newspapers because of their more accessible and convenient digital alternatives, which are the reasons why newspapers do not produce gains anymore but losses, and not even Washington Post was spared of this trend. The Washington Post was founded back in 1877 and became famous by the discovery of the Watergate scandal. They are also one of the pioneers in setting up so-called paywall, the content of their online editions, but the model has not proved particularly cost effective because youngsters would rather read bad articles for zero dollars, rather than a good one for a few cents.

It is therefore logical to ask yourself why Bezos would give $250 million from the personal pockets for business that melts away. One thing is certain, if anyone knows how to sell digital content intended for reading, it is Jeff Bezos. His purchase of the Washington Post (and a few other releases of the same publishing house), is a beginning of a process in which he will try to do the samefor the newspapers that he has done for the books, allow them to continue to live with the generation that recognizes the display as a medium for consumption of content, rather than paper.

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Read 2277 times Last modified on Tuesday, 06 August 2013 16:31

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