The Washington Post Sold to Amazon's Jeff Bezos

[Chickadee]

The Washington Post:

By Paul Farhi, Tuesday, October 1, 2:07 PM

 

Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos formally took over as the owner of The Washington Post on Tuesday, officially ending 80 years of local control of the newspaper by the Graham family.

 

Bezos’s $250 million purchase was completed as expected with the signing of sale documents. The signing transfers the newspaper and other assets from The Washington Post Co. to Nash Holdings, Bezos’s private investment company.

 

 

The Post’s new owner hasn’t disclosed specific plans or changes he intends to make for the money-losing paper. But in earlier interviews and on a two-day visit to The Post’s downtown Washington headquarters in early September, he suggested that he’ll provide a financial cushion — or “runway” — that will allow The Post time to conduct experiments that could lead to a successful business model.

The Washington Post Co. will continue to operate as a separate company without The Post newspaper. It is the parent company for a variety of businesses, including cable-TV systems, TV stations and the Kaplan education company. It will change its name to reflect the newspaper’s sale, but a new name hasn’t been announced yet. Graham will continue as chief executive of the renamed company.

 

 

In addition to The Post nameplate and its Springfield, Va., printing plant, Bezos is acquiring the Spanish-language El Tiempo newspaper, the free-distribution Express daily newspaper, the suburban Washington Gazette weeklies and 23 acres of undeveloped land in Charles County, Md.

In a note to employees on Tuesday, Katharine Weymouth said, “We are officially under new ownership, and a new era for The Washington Post begins.”