Post purchase defied predictions of doom
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013 for US$250 million. News stories suggest he has little direct editorial input, but is more hands-on when it comes to metrics such as subscription numbers and web-page loading times. As everywhere in the world of newspapers, the Post’s printsubscriber numbers have continued to shrink, but monthly web visitors, which were 30.5 million in 2013, are reportedly more than 70 million today. The number of journalists has increased, too, from 560 then to about 750 now, as has the size of the tech team, which sits in the same room.
Bezos encouraged his techies to develop Arc, publishing software that provides useful analytics and marketing features and is now used by other news publishers, including the New Zealand Herald.
It tests how site visitors read and enjoy stories. The website and mobile apps were revamped. Dozens of reader newsletters are sent out each week.
Bezos values the “bundle” – the traditional package of local and international news, sports, arts and entertainment and business content. “People will buy a package. They will not pay for a story.” The Post reportedly turned a profit in 2016 and is expected to do the same this year. Most of its income is made, as with most newspapers, from traditional print advertising. The company sells some digital advertising but concentrates on converting customers to subscribers.
In June, Bezos offered some advice to a conference in Italy on the future of newspapers:
Focus on readers first, not advertisers. “Be riveting, be right and ask people to pay. If you can focus on readers, advertisers will come.”
You can’t shrink your way to relevance. Constant cutting of staff wasn’t working. But money wasn’t thrown around: “Constraints drive creativity.” Use technology and real-time data.
“I would never let anybody or ask anybody to be slavish to data, but I’d also be super-sceptical of people who aren’t curious about the data.”
Advertising alone won’t fund investigative journalism. “If you want to do investigative reporting and other kinds of very expensive reporting, you have to have a model where people will pay you for it. Every time we’ve tightened our paywall, subscriptions go up.”