One of this fall’s major media themes is the potential salvation of journalism by leading Silicon Valley moguls like Jeff Bezos and Pierre M. Omidyar—if they have the ingenuity and patience to reinvent the shattered business model of traditional news-gathering. They certainly have the money to do whatever they choose, as well as their conviction as billionaires that they will deliver news in the digital age with the same success as they (and their colleagues) have built fortunes from products and services at Amazon and eBay.
Bezos’ purchase of the The Washington Post for $250 million, a fraction of its former value, with the intention of investing to restore the institution’s resources and morale, is now a fact. But if the process of change is beginning, it has yet to be made publicly. Bezos had a highly successful visit to his acquisition and gave all the right answers to the newsroom about his intentions of support. But as I understand it, he recently told one of the business executives still running the company that he has been so engrossed in Amazon that he hasn’t yet personally focused on a strategy for the Post.
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