WTF? Washington Post sells newspaper to Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com

There's been no question that Katherine Weymouth (daughter of Lally Weymouth, Katherine Graham's daughter, niece of Donald Graham), the publisher of the newspaper for about the past 5 years, is out of her depth.

But it's still a shock.

See "Jeff Bezos on Post purchase" and "Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos" from the Post.

This is a few days after the New York Times sold the Boston Globe, the Worcester Telegraph and Gazette, and related properties to John Henry, financier and Boston Red Sox managing partner, for $70 million--the Times spent $1.4 Billion on the two properties when first purchased.

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Although the current management will be retained to run the newspaper. 

So the editorial page will remain pretty conservative--as far as local politics is concerned--the Metro section will continue to be anemic publishing a modicum of local news, and the Style section (the "features" section) will likely remain unfocused.

Unless Mr. Bezos is willing to invest in the news product.

cf. "OC Register Owners To Launch Daily Newspaper In Long Beach" from the Long Beach (California) Business Journal.  The Register was acquired recently by a young entrepreneur who argues that while the industry is changing, it makes sense to focus investment on the print product, which provides the bulk of a newspaper's revenues.

Upon the acquisition, more reporters were added, writing more stories, for an expanded newspaper... although I don't know if that has been rewarded with greater circulation and ad sales.