No news is bad news: Washington Post dying | Seattle Times business columnist Jon Talton dies

Yesterday, the Washington Post laid off 300 workers, including the sports desk ("The Washington Post’s sports desk is gone. It’s the latest blow to American sports journalism," Boston Globe) and most of the remaining reporters working in the local news "Metro" section.

There had been reports for about a week that this was going to happen.

That big story ("Washington Post cuts a third of its staff in a blow to a legendary news brand," AP) is not reflected on the front page of today's paper.

After a promising start with ownership by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and a significant rise in digital subscriptions with its coverage of the first Trump Administration, the paper hit a bit of slump. 

But the slump took on the force of an out of control roller coaster when Bezos killed the endorsement of Kamala Harris for President ("Over 200,000 subscribers flee 'Washington Post' after Bezos blocks Harris endorsement," NPR).  

And last year's evisceration of a left leaning editorial page section ("The Exodus from the Washington Post," Columbia Journalism Review, "Washington Post’s turnaround on its opinion pages is returning journalism to its partisan roots − but without the principles," Conversation) replacing it with conservative hacks writing about Bezos concerns about "personal freedom" and "free markets."

Hundreds of thousands of subscribers cancelled ("How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post," New Yorker, "The Washington Post Is Dying a Death of Despair," Atlantic).

Considering Trump's attacks on both personal freedom and free markets, he could have kept the old stable of writers.

These days, Bezos is more interested in protecting his business interests vis a vis the world of crony capitalism pushed forward by Trump.  

Such investments include donations to Trump's inauguration and to the new East Wing of the White House monstrosity, as well as funding a documentary about Melania Trump in the period up to the inauguration--it hasn't played well to critics ("He made a joke on his theater’s marquee, then Amazon pulled the ‘Melania’ movie," Seattle Times).  

And debilitating the Post ("Jeff Bezos Killed the Washington Post," Slate, "Jeff Bezos’ mass layoffs at the Washington Post a ‘case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction,’ former editor says," Fortune).

Alternatives that won't happen.  One sell the paper to someone more inclined to respect its history and purpose.  Two, Margaret Sullivan suggests creating a nonprofit to take the paper over (" Is Jeff Bezos going to destroy the Washington Post? It sure looks like it," Guardian), with a big stake from Bezos, the way papers in Philadelphia and Salt Lake have been converted to nonprofits in this era of declining newspaper profits.

Ironically, I'd reach out to Lord Rothermere in the UK, publisher of the Daily Mail, which is looking to buy the Daily Telegraph, the Tory Party standby after that paper suffered various ownership debacles.  While most of the Daily Mail papers are conservative, they do still own a piece of the Evening Standard, which is not ("Move over, Murdoch: will Lord Rothermere be Britain’s most powerful media mogul?," Guardian).

Three, when Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal he created a small news section on New York City, aimed at prying readers away from the New York Times.  The NYT has a strong readership in print and digitally within the Washington region.  Maybe they could publish a zoned section with local sports, metropolitan news, and editorials.

I wish self important billionaires like Tom Steyer wouldn't waste their money on stupid political campaigns.  How about funding a printed and digital US edition of the Guardian, based in DC?

Jon Talton, business columnist, Seattle Times dies ("Jon Talton, Seattle Times business columnist and author, dies at 69").  

He wrote about the regional economy, which reminds me that the Post hasn't had someone on that beat since Stephen Pearlstein left to teach at George Mason University.

He wrote about downtown, Boeing, of course the various IT businesses there, in particular Amazon and Microsoft, and how local politics intersected with business. About relevant national economic issues, population density, immigration, etc.

An important voice is lost, and his body of work is a demonstration of the value of solid local reporting and reporting-based opinion to an knowledgeable community.