Are Billionaires Saving Publication Sites – Or Are We Doomed?
Alexandra Gore | February 8, 2024
Over a decade ago, The Washington Post (The Post) saw a change in ownership. In exchange for $250 million, The Post was handed over to the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. With a dream to create a global name for the publication, Amazon was officially his in August 2013.
According to The Post, for the six years leading up to the transfer of ownership, it suffered a 44% decline in operating revenue. Previous co-chairman and chief executive Donald E. Graham believes that The Post did not need to be rescued, but the future seemed brighter under Bezos’s care.
“The Post could have survived under the company’s ownership and been profitable for the foreseeable future,” Graham said. “But we wanted to do more than survive. I’m not saying this guarantees success, but it gives us a much greater chance of success.”
Employees at The Post claim that Bezos does not interfere with the publication’s creative processes and focuses instead on business and profit.
However, even with this mission, The Post was set to lose 100 million dollars in 2023. From 2021 to 2023, the number of digital subscribers dropped by 15%. In that same period, the overall online audience declined by 28%.
Are news publications dying out, even with billionaire founders?
Time Magazine is owned by Marc Benioff, who has a net worth of $10.1 billion. Time Magazine has no public record of any mass profit losses, but Benioff has been labeled as “evasive” and “unfair” by employees.
Billionaires cannot just own one mega-company, they almost always own several. Benioff is also the founder of Salesforce — which owns the popular workplace communications platform Slack — and has had his share of controversies.
On top of that, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, whose net worth is $11.5 billion, owns the Los Angeles Times.
I believe that there are right and wrong ways to go about this.
For example, The Guardian does not have a single individual running the publication. Rather, their board of trustees and editors are elected by the writers of the newspaper.
On the other hand, it is hard to imagine a world where the press is able to survive without wealthy people with money constantly on the ready. Print media is quickly dying, and it takes knowledge of ever-changing systems to know where to put money so that online publications stay afloat.
It is important to think about the employees of these companies when considering this. Bezos’s reputation with labor rights is far from salvageable and makes me wonder where his ethical intentions lie. Of course, according to him, he wishes nothing but profit and prosperity for the company. But considering the Post’s charts, is he accomplishing these goals?
Moreover, I worry about media control and question whether these billionaires are purchasing publications out of genuine interest or if they are seeking some kind of political gain. As famous journalist Ben Bagdikian said, “Media power is political power.”
Typically, I end my pieces with some sort of solution, but this situation is tricky. Without money, the press will not survive. However, without ethical boundaries and a fair system, the press will not want to survive. Bezos’s actions could have dire consequences, and it is important to pay close attention to the media as this develops.
