WekiileaksAviciiNewAlbum

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Friday, 9 August 2013

Can Billionaires Like Jeff Bezos and John Henry Save Newspapers?

Posted on 19:22 by Unknown

Over the past few weeks, the newspaper industry in the United States was jolted into shocked awe from the news that two news giants, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, were bought by billionaire investors. Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon and Silicon Valley tech magnate, purchased the Washington Post from its parent company the Washington Post Co. for $250 million. The New York Times Company, on the other hand, sold the Boston Globe to John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool FC for $70 million.

The purchases reveal that the media world of yesterday has not lost all hope. With many newspapers shutting down and losing subscribers, the investments by Bezos and Henry uncover the true potential behind classic media. With these newspapers, the billionaires have shown that they believe there is still an untapped reservoir behind these platforms, their teams, and the communities they inspire. Where many had predicted the fall of newspapers this decade, Bezos and Henry just made a $320 million bet that they can transform the ancient giants into 21st century powerhouses of news media.

Some have speculated that the purchases are attempts at gaining influence, particularly Bezos's purchase of the Washington Post. But this argument falls flat rather quickly. Bezos would not have access to alter any of the content that the editors decided to print, so it is unlikely he could shape the voice of the Washington Post enough to gain any sort of power among the political forces in D.C. Rather, he will probably face the occasional critique from his own newspaper on Amazon and Silicon Valley (Amazon has a $600 million contract over cloud computing with the NSA).

Businessweek writer Brad Stone believes that experimentation in the media world may be the real factor in the equation Bezos considered when buying the Washington Post. In an interview with the New Republic, Stone said, "So there's plenty of room and opportunity for new models to be created. We're so dominated in our world by our media organizations getting smaller and losing money, and yet to him it's always been clear that this is an opportunity for more experimentation."

With John W. Henry, his statement may have revealed that his interests also lie in investing in the Boston community. Henry stated, "This is a thriving, dynamic region that needs a strong, sustainable Boston Globe playing an integral role in the community's long-term future." Bezos said in an interview last year that he believed nobody who used the web for news would buy a subscription to a newspaper in print. It seems that Bezos invested in order to actively transition the Washington Post into becoming a more active web presence. Henry and Bezos both like the cut of each of their respective newspapers' teams, and it seems their purchases were motivated by gaining the power to shape the newspapers in new directions.



Click here to view original article
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • "The Spectacular Now" Movie: The Best Teen Romance Film This Year
    There hasn’t been a respectable movie about young romance in years. This year's attempts at teen romance have b...
  • How Abuse Survivors Can Protect Themselves On Facebook
    Just as Twitter has been working to amend its privacy features in light of violent and threatening attacks on some prom...
  • How to Survive a D.C. Summer If You're Not Interested in Politics
    So you’re in D.C. for the summer. Chances are you’ve hit all the tourist sites in a day, learned to use the Smithso...
  • The Democratic Fairy Tale About Detroit That the Media is Feeding You
    The past week, a couple of people in the media threw around the comedic notion that the Detroit bankruptcy...
  • The Economic Reality That Barack Obama Clearly Doesn't Understand
    President Barack Obama’s recent speech on the economy demonstrates a stunning lack of economic knowledge. By focusi...
  • Why Americans are Losing Wealth — And What to Do About It
    A series of factors have led to declining American wealth, but one thing is for sure: A growing number of Americans...
  • A Year After the Aurora Shooting Massacre, Absolutely Nothing Has Changed
    Saturday's one year anniversary of the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., came and went with and little ...
  • Watch This Kid Solve a Rubik's Cube in Less Time Than It Took to Read This Headline
    The Rubik's Cube. That pesky 3x3 cube that can make men and women out of teens or, if you're like me, a foo...
  • How Can Baseball Boost Viewership? Give Video Games a Shot
    It's 9 a.m. on a Sunday, and I'm still in my pajamas, toggling through a list of opponents to choose who wi...
  • Thought Republicans Were Done With the War On Women? Watch This Sexist Atttack On Hillary Clinton
    "Have you slapped Hillary today?" This is the unsolicited tweet a number of reporters received on Mon...

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2013 (500)
    • ▼  August (414)
      • U.S. Sanctions On Iran Are So Bad, Women Have Run ...
      • National Zoo Tiger Cubs Are a Reminder Of How Much...
      • Why Are Chinese Workers At Apple Suppliers Foxconn...
      • What One Year At PolicyMic Has Taught Me About Growth
      • 10 Memes to Help You Celebrate Eid
      • How Many Terror Threats Does the U.S. Get Every Day?
      • Mic Check: This Photo Perfectly Sums Up Obama’s Re...
      • I'm An Openly Gay Gold Medalist and I Reject the S...
      • Not Even Promising 50 Years Of Secrecy Can Get Con...
      • Lady Gaga's 'Burqa' is Supposed to Empower Muslim ...
      • Why I'm Proud to Be a Part Of Know Your IX
      • Wait Until You Read How Republicans Just Wasted Ev...
      • Them's Fightin' Words: The Case For Bringing Back ...
      • 3 New Yorkers Who Are Asking Forgiveness — And Doi...
      • French Farmers Protest EU By Destroying 100,000 Eg...
      • Here's What Obama Had to Say on Jay Leno Last Night
      • Inside America's Second Guantanamo: Bagram Airfiel...
      • Obama Leno YouTube Video: The President Says He Ha...
      • Two Males Arrested in Rehtaeh Parsons Case
      • China is Forcing 250 Million Rural Dwellers to Rel...
      • Ebony Magazine Cover Shows We Can't Give Up On You...
      • Guess Which Continent is Home to 14 of the 15 Most...
      • Gay Couple Forced to Back Of the Bus Gets An Apolo...
      • Congress Might Actually Fix a Billion-Dollar Problem
      • One Direction Fans Are Fuming Over This Harry Styl...
      • Why Cory Booker is Going to Be New Jersey's Next S...
      • Women Without Children Aren't Selfish — They're Smart
      • This Ohio Town Will Discriminate Against Minority ...
      • Boycotting the 2014 Olympics is Pointless For Gay ...
      • Sydney Leathers Will Teach You How to Bag a Weiner
      • Will Mexico's New Energy Plan Make It the Next Kuw...
      • TSA "VIPR Teams" Will Soon Be Patting You Down Out...
      • If You've Communicated With Someone Outside Of the...
      • Florida's Execution Of Mentally-Ill Mass Murderer ...
      • Latin America's Most Successful Politician? It's P...
      • How a 7% Cut to a U.S. Agency's Budget Can Take Do...
      • FEC Official Don McGahn Admits IRS Scandal Might B...
      • Detroit's Bankruptcy Could Spread Nationwide if We...
      • Seth Meyers On "Late Night" Just More Of the Same
      • 8 Coming-of-Age Films Every Millennial Needs to Watch
      • How to Get Over Your Ex in the Facebook Era
      • You're Not a Grown-Up Until You Stop Texting Your Mom
      • How Abuse Survivors Can Protect Themselves On Face...
      • PolicyMic is Debating the "B" Word This Week – Whe...
      • Can Shinzo Abe Make Japan a Superpower Again?
      • For the Simple Crime of Smoking Marijuana, the Gov...
      • How to Get Over Your Ex in the Facebook Era
      • Open Mic With Eliot Spitzer, Candidate For New Yor...
      • Happy Anniversary, Myanmar
      • Republican Threat to Shut Down Government Over Oba...
      • Polyphonic Spree Review: 'Yes It's True' Is the Ha...
      • Immigration Reform 2013: Why Did the Media Ignore ...
      • Social Security Begins Making Payments To Some Sam...
      • Can Billionaires Like Jeff Bezos and John Henry Sa...
      • Obama: "We Are Not Going To Completely Eliminate T...
      • How Hollywood Helped Hitler — and How It's Helping...
      • Obama: "I Don't Think Mr. Snowden Was A Patriot"
      • You Won't Believe What Just Happened On Reddit
      • Obama: "Mixed Success" With Putin
      • Name Which Democrat Said This: "We’re Not Broke, T...
      • Obama Opposes Olympics Boycott
      • Obama Administration Launching NSA Transparency We...
      • Why Bad TV Succeeds But Good TV Fails
      • Republican Mayoral Candidate Doesn't Want To Expla...
      • Smoking Is Not a Right
      • 5 Reasons Conservatives Don't Believe Climate Chan...
      • In Open Letter, California Sen. Barbara Boxer Tell...
      • Wisconsin Official Fired After Saying Undocumented...
      • What a Free Market Approach to Education Would Loo...
      • Congressman Suggests "Arab Persons" Might Disguise...
      • Congress' Iran Policy: Short Sighted and Irrational
      • Insane Confrontation At Oklahoma Congressman's Tow...
      • The TSA Is Turning Us Into a Stop-And-Frisk Nation
      • Terry McAuliffe Dismisses Reporter's Question On T...
      • Dronestagram Brings Drone Strikes Abroad A Little ...
      • Is Jay-Z Right About the Middle Class?
      • TSA Patdowns Coming to a Concert Near You
      • How A Democrat Dodges A Question About Wall Street...
      • International Olympics Committee Asks Russia To Pr...
      • The Fast Food Strikes Are Really About Civil Rights
      • How Jackie Chan Became The Most Hated Celeb On The...
      • Yemen Terror Threats Actually Come On Tail Of Huge...
      • Watch Anthony Weiner Struggle To Take A Reporter W...
      • Kristin Davis is Out Of Comptrol As NYC Race Gets ...
      • Democratic Gun Politics In Arkansas Senate Race Ar...
      • 5 Ways to Save Money On Health Care Costs
      • Russian U.N. Ambassador Speaks Out On Anti-LGBT Laws
      • RNC Chairman is Insane to Threaten NBC and CNN Ove...
      • 4 Ways Your Boss Will Set You Up For Failure
      • 5 Netflix Features That We Desperately Need
      • Thought Republicans Were Done With the War On Wome...
      • McDonald's Big Mac Study is a Prime Example of Wha...
      • MLB Suspensions List: 13 Baseball Players Busted F...
      • The 113th Congress Takes "Dysfunctional" to a Whol...
      • Who Does Desiree Hartstock Pick? The Sad Reality O...
      • Sean Sasser, AIDS Activist Known From MTV's "The R...
      • Obama Campaign Mastermind Jim Messina Now Working ...
      • Can Stay-At-Home Governor Andrew Cuomo Go National?
      • Burka Avenger: Can This Superhero Save Pakistan?
      • Ken Cuccinelli Joked About Drinking With Ted Kenne...
    • ►  July (86)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile