Amazon founder Bezos agreed to buy the Newspaper Assets of Washington Post

Jeffrey P Bezos, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Amazon on 5 August agreed to buy the newspaper assets of the Washington Post Company for 250 million US dollar. The decision to sell the assets was made following the fall in revenue and decline in the circulation of its copies.

The Washington Post has been owned by the Graham family for 80 years. Donald E. Graham is the Chairman and Chief Executive of Washington Post at present.     

Apart from this, the Boston Globe, one of the most prestigious newspapers in US was sold by New York Times Company to John Henry, the American billionaire owner of Liverpool Football Club for 70 million US dollar. Globe was launched in 1993 and broke the records of highest price ever paid to the American newspaper. One of the important reasons behind the sale was fall of the newspaper’s circulation to nearly half over a decade from 438621 copies to 230351 in September 2012.

Comment: Sale of the Washington Post and the Boston Globe is an indication towards the fall in circulation of the print copies of the news and the threat that is posed to the traditional medium from the internet world.