Thursday, October 2, 2014

"D.C. mystery: Jeff Bezos’ plan for The Washington Post"

Henry Blodget Editor-in-chief!?
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From Politico:
Jeff Bezos rarely visits The Washington Post.

His most recent trip to the nation’s capital, on Sept. 17, was for a press conference about Blue Origin, his spaceflight startup. He doesn’t keep an office at the Post’s headquarters, on 15th Street, and he doesn’t much care for hobnobbing with the D.C. media establishment. Every few months he meets face-to-face with the Post leadership, but these gatherings usually take place 3,000 miles outside the Beltway, in his hometown of Seattle.

Meanwhile, the Post, far from embarking on the radical reinvention that many thought Bezos would bring, remains more old school than cutting edge. Its executive editor, Martin Baron, is the epitome of the 20th-century newspaperman. Its new publisher, former POLITICO CEO Fred Ryan, is a fixture of the old Washington scene. The paper has hired a whopping 100 staffers this year, but few among them are marquee names. It has launched several new blogs, but few have drawn much notice. The homepage could use a redesign. 
One year after his acquisition — Bezos purchased the Post from the Graham family, for $250 million, a year ago today, on Oct. 1, 2013 — media analysts remain puzzled by his decision to buy the paper. There has been no major digital innovation, no radical new product launch, no change to delivery or presentation, and no promise of any specific plans for the future....MORE
HT: Ritholtz@Bloomberg