What’s Next for the Bezos-Owned Washington Post: NewsBreaks

On Aug. 5, 2013, The Washington Post’s CEO met with his staff to announce that the company had finished signing papers transferring ownership of the venerable paper to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos for $250 million. Marty Baron, executive editor of the paper, reported that “there was an audible gasp” from the reporters who had gathered as CEO Donald Graham (son of famed publisher Katharine Graham) announced the sale of the paper to Bezos; the sale was done through his holding company, Explore Holdings, which is not to be affiliated with his Amazon empire. Although not the first significant buyout of major U.S. newspapers, this sale “shocked the media world and beyond,” according to the New York Post.