News Amazon's Jeff Bezos buys Washington Post for $250 million

Amazon founder buys leading US newspaper. Purchase not buy Amazon though.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2013/08/06/jeff-bezos-buys-washington-post-for-250-mil/1

 

I agree that he might be able to help out the company, but other than boredom, I don't see why he really cares what happens to them. To me, that's like Bill Gates buying out Marlboro and use his business tactics to help sell more cigarettes - it's not that he'd be a bad owner, I just don't see why the outcome matters to him or better yet, how it relates to his own company.

The only foreseeable gain I see in an Amazon perspective is maybe having some extra exclusivity to the WP on Kindle. However, while I'm not a Kindle owner, I'd find it hard to believe if there isn't already something WP related for Kindle.

 

Yeah, the man who made his fortune starting a company that sold books and that then pioneered digital publishing would have absolutely no interest in newspapers...

 

Well as mentioned in the article, newspaper companies like the WP aren't doing that great. Also, books and newspapers aren't similar other than the fact that they're text documents intended for the general public. That's like comparing TV news to a sitcom or a drama. People often misinterpret what it means to be a writer, as there are many kinds that have nothing to do with each other and require different skills.

People buy e-books because they're overall easier to deal with than paper books. Most people do not pay for news sources (they're often free online). Newspapers are often thrown out while books (including paper ones) are kept. It isn't a surprise Bezos became so wealthy off of e-books, but you can't possibly expect he'd get that successful if he chose newspapers instead. Newspaper companies aren't that profitable anymore compared to book publishers (electronic or not), so unless Bezos is looking for a challenge, it *does* make sense why he wouldn't have an interest in newspapers regardless of his success in publishing books.