Late Monday afternoon, The Washington Post chief executive Donald E. Graham and publisher Katharine Weymouth gathered their employees in an auditorium to put an end to one family’s long-running legacy in the newspaper industry.
The Grahams had owned The Post since the Great Depression era, but as of yesterday Washington’s flagship newspaper will officially be sold to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos will pay $250 million in cash to the Graham family in exchange for ownership of the paper, a move that has employees, readers, and newspaper executives nationwide discussing The Post’s fate. The purchase is set to be finalized within 60 days.
Bezos, who has no previous experience in the newspaper industry, issued a statement to The Washington Post’s readers where he promised to uphold the paper’s commitment to truthful reporting.
“The values of The Post do not need changing. The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners,” Bezos declared. “We will continue to follow the truth wherever it leads, and we’ll work hard not to make mistakes. When we do, we will own up to them quickly and completely.”
The Post’s impending new owner has no intention of dismissing any of the newspaper’s employees during the transition. This also pertains to the newspaper’s current leadership, meaning that Graham and Weymouth will continue to act in their positions. Graham, Weymouth, and Bezos emphasized that the purchase had no connection with Amazon.com, meaning that it was conducted with Bezos’ own private interests.
Bezos did, however, insist that despite keeping The Post as close as possible to its traditional roots, change was also necessary in a media landscape under constant transformation.
“We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment,” he said. “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. I’m excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention.”
The Washington Post possesses a long-standing tradition of Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting that has also made the Graham family name synonymous with newspaper royalty. Yet despite taking down President Nixon by revealing the Watergate scandal and, in recent times, providing the public with an eye on the NSA’s surveillance activities, the paper had been running into some hard financial times of its own. Suddenly, selling The Post became a viable option for the Graham family to ensure the paper’s survival.
Along with The Post, Bezos has also purchased other papers owned by The Washington Post Company. These include the Express newspaper, the Gazette Newspapers, Southern Maryland Newspapers, the Fairfax County Times, El Tiempo Latino and Greater Washington Publishing. The company will hold on to Slate, Foreign Policy, and TheRoots.com.
While Graham and Weymouth expressed great sadness at selling The Post, they did hint positively at a new era for the newspaper.
“I want to focus on the future. I firmly believe that today’s announcement represents a remarkable opportunity for us, unique among media companies,” Weymouth remarked to The Post’s employees. “In Jeff we have found an owner who believes in The Post as a business but also cares deeply about the role it serves in our society.”Â