{"id":5703,"date":"2015-12-09T19:34:05","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T00:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/yesterdays-news-can-jeff-bezos-save-the-washington-post\/"},"modified":"2015-12-09T19:39:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T00:39:18","slug":"yesterdays-news-can-jeff-bezos-save-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/yesterdays-news-can-jeff-bezos-save-the-washington-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Yesterday\u2019s News: Can Jeff Bezos Save The Washington Post?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eugene Meyer bought The\u00a0Washington Post<\/em> in 1933 at a bankruptcy auction for $825,000; by the time of the Watergate \/ Meyer Graham heyday, the paper was large and profitable, with newspapers operating as effective distribution monopolies for individuals or firms placing classified ads, movie showtimes, event listings, and short-term sales (1). Fast-forwarding to the Internet Age, Craigslist et al<\/em> disrupted classified ad revenue, and new digital ad revenue only slightly tempered the decline in circulation and print ad revenue. For the Post<\/em>, seven lean years of declining revenues culminated in its sale to Amazon.com founder, Jeff Bezos, in August 2013 for $250 million. Ten years after a one-time peak circulation of 832,332, daily circulation had dropped to 474,767, and Bezos\u2019 had on his hands a loss making machine (2).<\/p>\n

\"tom<\/a><\/p>\n

What is The Washington Post\u2019s<\/em> business & operating model? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/em> is in part a subscription based business model, whereby people are allowed to view a limited number of articles online before purchasing an online or in-print subscription. Revenues are generated by online and in-print advertisement, as well. It is a business model under significant duress due to the following: (i) the internet disrupted classified ad revenues, and (ii) digital advertisement did not recoup declines in print advertising given advertisers can measure the efficacy of the digital ads through clicks, and using that metric, drove down the advertising price per click paid.<\/p>\n

Operationally, the Post<\/em> employs 700 people and has been at crossroads for some time now \u2013 struggling with questions like whether to focus on regional DC politics versus National News, and whether to passively source stories from other institutions or maintain the hard hitting journalism epitomized by the Watergate reporting. Newspapers can break a story or generate an article lead, but they do not own the content – and the story can quickly be rearticulated by another news\u00a0feed. Former Chairman Donald Graham sums up the Post\u2019s<\/em> inability to sustain a competitive advantage from its operating model with the following, \u201cIs there any kind of a plus to a news organization in having really high-quality reporting and editing? \u00a0I\u2019m pretty sure the answer to that is yes, but we have not figured it out\u201d (3). No longer does the Post<\/em> have the benefit of outsized third party and classified advertising revenue streams to subsidize its reporting and editorial content.<\/p>\n

Bezos\u2019 Tool-kit <\/strong><\/p>\n

At current assessment, it stands that the Post<\/em> is the Biggest Loser \u2013 fundamentally unable to profitably monetize its journalistic operations. So what is Jeff Bezos up to? What is Bezos\u2019 plan to fix the Post<\/em>?<\/p>\n