Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, has agreed to privately purchase the Washington Post from the Washington Post Company for $250 million in cash.
The Washington Post Company will remain a publicly traded company without its flagship title, but under an as-yet-undetermined new name, according to the Post. According to Reuters, Slate, TheRoot, and Foreign Policy will remain within the Company.
Donald Graham, the Post Co.’s chief executive of more than 20 years, says, “…we wanted to do more than survive. I’m not saying this guarantees success but it gives us a much greater chance of success.”
In a letter to the Post‘s staff, Bezos wrote:
The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about – government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports – and working backwards from there.
Amazon is not involved in the purchase, though that didn’t stop the Twitterverse from cracking e-retail-themed jokes:
Based on your previous purchases, Jeff Bezos, you might also like:
— The Los Angeles Times
— The Orlando Sentinel
— Newsweek— Marc Ambinder (@marcambinder) August 5, 2013
UNCONFIRMED: Bezos bought WP with 1-Click.
— Sam Sifton (@SamSifton) August 5, 2013
Now that's same day delivery RT @washingtonpost: Washington Post to be sold to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos http://t.co/s9jKe2FYkS
— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) August 5, 2013
This story is developing.
[Image: Flickr user Doc Searls]