Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post “murder”

(New York) Reading the memoirs of Martin Baron, editor-in-chief of Washington Post from 2012 to 2021, we say that Jeff Bezos was the ideal owner to relaunch this newspaper whose past, marked by the publication of the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate investigation, seemed bigger than the future.

According to Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Postthe founder of Amazon not only drew on his great fortune to replenish the editorial staff and renew the website of this daily which he had bought in 2013 for 250 million dollars from the Graham family. A month after the start of Donald Trump’s first presidential term, the multibillionaire entrepreneur placed under the logo of the newspaper’s print edition and at the top of his website a motto that he himself had chosen following extensive consultations: “Democracy dies in darkness.” »

“In Bezos’s vision, this was not a slogan, but a ‘mission statement,’” Baron writes in his book.

This mission statement, supported by a revamped editorial team, met with great success. From 2013 to 2021, the number of digital subscribers of Washington Post went from 35,000 to more than 3 million.

It obviously earned Jeff Bezos enemies in the White House. Throughout his first stay at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Donald Trump attacked the Seattle businessman, denouncing the “fake news” published by his newspaper, which he nicknamed “Amazon Washington Post”. In 2019, he even lobbied for the tech giant to lose a $10 billion cloud services contract with the Pentagon.

Dark cuts

But, during this period, Jeff Bezos has not deviated from the line drawn by Katharine Graham, who stood up to President Richard Nixon during the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and contributed to his resignation three years later in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

“We had an owner who would not allow himself to be seduced or intimidated by President Donald Trump,” writes Martin Baron after recalling an episode where the head of the White House asked Bezos to curb the ardor of his journalists.

This same owner is today accused of “the murder of the Washington Post », to quote the title which covered an article signed by Ashley Parker, former correspondent of the daily at the White House, and published on the magazine’s website The Atlanticwhere she now works, on February 4. That day, the daily’s management announced the dismissal of 300 journalists, the closure of eight international offices, the liquidation of two sections, including that of Sports, itself legendary, and the dismissal of all the company’s photographers.

During his very first meeting with the employees of the Washington PostJeff Bezos himself recognized that these kinds of deep cuts could lead to the death of a newspaper. When Bob Woodward, famous for his role in the Watergate investigation, asked why he bought the newspaper, Bezos responded: “I ultimately concluded that I could provide some financial flexibility (to the newspaper), because I don’t believe you can reduce the size of a company indefinitely. You can be profitable while reducing your size. It’s a survival strategy, but it leads, at best, to obsolescence. At worst, it leads to disappearance. »

A “betrayal”

Books will no doubt be written to recount all the details of the capitulation of Jeff Bezos, whose personal fortune has increased from $25 billion to $250 billion since his acquisition of Washington Post.

Their story could begin where Martin Baron’s ends. It would highlight the incapacity of Washington Post to diversify its offering after the departure of Donald Trump from the White House, which prompted many of its readers to end their digital subscription. At the same time, the New York Times added subscribers by becoming a platform where they could not only get information, but also play, cook or shop.

Jeff Bezos was certainly not obliged to absorb losses which amounted to 77 million dollars in 2023, 100 million dollars in 2024 and perhaps as much in 2025. But he dictated decisions which contributed to losing hundreds of thousands of subscribers to the Post.

The decision not to publish an editorial supporting the election of Kamala Harris in 2024 was one that demonstrated a desire to accommodate Donald Trump’s sensitivities and preserve government contracts for his companies, including the space company Blue Origin.

Other decisions along the same lines would follow, including the acquisition and promotion of the documentary Melaniawhich cost Amazon $75 million.

Martin Baron will probably leave it to others to recount in a book the betrayal of the values ​​that his former boss had promised to defend by buying the Washington Post. In the meantime, he spoke out last week on his Facebook page, denouncing in particular “the disgusting efforts made by Bezos to curry favor with President Trump”.

“It’s a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction,” he concluded.