The Washington Post is Not a Yacht, Not a Charity

(Bezos Knows That) 

Today, August 5th, is a landmark day not just for the Washington Post but for newspapers at large.

I value newspapers tremendously—on a personal level (I still like holding a physical newspaper while sipping coffee on a Sunday morning) and on a societal level. But, over the past 5 years, I’ve gotten comfortable—even cozy—with the idea that newspapers will die. Not because they are intrinsically doomed but because they’ve proven themselves unable to overcome the (significant) challenge of a dramatically changing landscape.

And that, I’ve thought, is a tragedy. Not because newspapers are too precious to fail but because the problem that newspapers exist to solve is no less relevant today than it was when newspapers were born. More to the point, there’s still a massive market for the product newspapers intend to provide: quality news writing. In fact, that market may be bigger and hungrier than ever before.

So failure is not inevitable. But success seems unlikely given most newspapers’ overall track record of innovating a day late and a dollar short. Not to mention, begrudging the success of their traffic and PR sources (both the big guy, and the little guy).

But with today’s announcement, I’m excitedly preparing to eat my words.

I don’t believe for a second that Bezos bought the Washington Post as an act of philanthropy (tweet). Or to add a new toy to his collection (tweeeet). He’s not going to waste his time or headaches on a dying institution. He knows the market is there and, like any good innovation-driven entrepreneur, he’s excited by the challenge of capitalizing on it to the point of growth. And he probably values newspapers for kinder, gentler reasons (like the good of civilization) but to unhinge that from the business opportunity would be missing the point and dooming newspapers in a moment better suited to stepping back and basking in the glow of something that, for once, doesn’t look like doom.