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    DennyCraneHamilton Nolan
    8/05/13 5:10pm

    Honestly, I'd rather have WaPo in Bezos' hands than, say, Doug Manchester's. At the very least there's a chance he's going to approach the ownership of the paper as a challenge of sorts, as opposed to a just a plaything or a bully pulpit.

    Also, I'm shocked that Slate isn't a part of the deal.

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      Hamilton NolanDennyCrane
      8/05/13 5:19pm

      It does seem at first glance like Bezos is not a bad option when you think of the potential buyers out there. Then again, nobody really has any idea what the fuck he's gonna do! Which will make it interesting.

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      jheffernanHamilton Nolan
      8/05/13 5:24pm

      With luck he will run it like Amazon. No concern for profits, just marketshare and the best possible service/product.

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    JohnMcClanesSmirkHamilton Nolan
    8/05/13 5:27pm

    Whether the newspaper makes money or not is irrelevant. When people buy money sucking vanity projects I always think of what Fred Wilpon said when he explained why he wanted to own the Mets -

    "No one had heard of us before we bought the Mets, and afterward the change was dramatic. I don’t think someone has not returned one of my telephone calls in thirty years. It’s a small club, owning a baseball team, and people want to be near it ...You take the chairman of the board of a bank, with his grandson, on the field to meet David Wright, and make that grandfather a hero, and you do business the way we do business, it opens up everything.”

    At that level, you make money off influence and business interests tangentially related to the newspaper, not the newspaper.

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      JohninLAJohnMcClanesSmirk
      8/05/13 6:11pm

      Your point, isolated from this specific instance, is valid... but I don't think that Jeff Bezos is a guy who doesn't get his calls returned. That would be like Gates buying something to "gain influence." At a certain level (which Bezos it at), your visibility in the business/political world is already so high that it can't really be improved upon much.

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      JohnMcClanesSmirkJohninLA
      8/05/13 6:25pm

      The literal analogy is not apples to apples, correct, but I was making a larger connection. Of course, Bezos doesn't have a problem getting his phone calls returned, but that's not his problem.

      Bezos is a staunchly ideological libertarian, his company bleeds money every quarter and his purpose isn't just nickles and dimes - he's in it for the long game. And the largest barrier to his long game is regulatory, and fairly or unfairly, The Washington Post is still the most effective means for Bezos to influence those who control the mechanisms of regulation. Whether its organized labor, internet sales taxes, or tariffs - his margins are so razor thin, having influence in Washington could be the difference between his company being worth 100 Billion or 500 Billion (and by extension, based on his warped ideological logic, the difference between his being a failure or a Randian Hero.)

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    HypocryphaHamilton Nolan
    8/05/13 5:17pm

    It's worth noting that Laura Graham (of the Graham family) is married to Tim O'Shaugnessy, the CEO of moribund deal site and major Amazon investment LivingSocial. I don't know if that had anything to do with this acquisition but the link is interesting.

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      araucaniadHypocrypha
      8/05/13 5:34pm

      Definitely relevant: 1. Follow the money. 2. X degrees of separation. People always think first about themselves, and secondly about the people they are personally close to.

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      XMarksTheSpotaraucaniad
      8/05/13 7:52pm

      How does this relate to the 5,000 new jobs Bezos created for the White House?

      Most people here do not seem to be aware how much Amazon is in cahoots with the government.

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    773SleepyHollowHamilton Nolan
    8/05/13 5:17pm

    At least it wasn't the Koch brothers or Sheldon Adelson. (Or, of course, Rupert.)

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      Jeangenie773SleepyHollow
      8/05/13 6:13pm

      Or the Sinclair Broadcast Group who just bought the DC ABC affiliate and other Albritton stations.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_…

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    cuntybawsHamilton Nolan
    8/05/13 5:13pm

    His day and mine started out the same: "I'm nipping out to buy a newspaper!" and then went slightly differently. Oh cruel fate!!!

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      HashTagYoloisbackcuntybaws
      8/05/13 5:34pm

      You should not stop writing.

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    Flame Princess, Garbage-MongerHamilton Nolan
    8/05/13 5:11pm

    It must be nice to drop 1% of your net worth on the scion of a dying industry and not have a worked-out plan for it. I can only hope that his future plan includes firing Sally Quinn.

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      'Twas the Friday before XmasFlame Princess, Garbage-Monger
      8/05/13 5:13pm

      I dropped 1% of my net worth today... on a cheeseburger.

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      StenchofaburnerFlame Princess, Garbage-Monger
      8/05/13 5:17pm

      The plebes like us can pick a hobby and spend a chunk of our disposable income on it. For some people it's collecting tchotchkes from a certain time period, for others it's collecting stamps or miniature cars, a few might build steampunk inspired keyboards. Jeff Bezos? He buys a fucking newspaper.

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    The Curse of MillhavenHamilton Nolan
    8/05/13 5:16pm

    I think it would be fun to run a newspaper.

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      Johnny ChundersThe Curse of Millhaven
      8/05/13 5:34pm

      You could yell out STOP THE PRESSES and the presses would, like, stop.

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    PrayForDentonHamilton Nolan
    8/05/13 5:08pm

    Maybe he'll use the paper to stuff boxes, so Amazon orders don't get dinged in transit.

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      JohninLAHamilton Nolan
      8/05/13 5:11pm

      This is going to turn out exactly like that one time when the Onion was bought by that Chinese conglomerate.

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        MagisterHamilton Nolan
        8/05/13 6:17pm

        The Wall Street Journal sold six years ago for $5 billion; the WaPo is selling for 1/20th of that. That's the direction the newspaper business is headed.

        To be fair, News Corporation bought Dow Jones which included the Wall Street Journal which has higher-priced subscription and ad rates, plus they have lots of valuable paid online subscribers, along with other websites and 26 printing plants located on three continents. While I can't quickly find the link, but I believe that not too long ago, the Washington Post closed bureaus and said they would be more local.

        The value of newspapers may be slipping, but it's not an apple-to-apple comparison.

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