Comments on: Hmm. https://habitablezone.com/2013/08/05/hmm/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 21:56:17 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Robert https://habitablezone.com/2013/08/05/hmm/#comment-25891 Robert Mon, 05 Aug 2013 23:12:43 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=36217#comment-25891 <blockquote>People who purchased the Washington Post also liked these products</blockquote> (noted at <a href="http://wonkette.com/524735/amazons-jeff-bezos-thinks-it-would-be-fun-to-run-a-news-paper" rel="nofollow">the Wonkette</a>)

People who purchased the Washington Post also liked these products

(noted at the Wonkette)

]]> By: Robert https://habitablezone.com/2013/08/05/hmm/#comment-25890 Robert Mon, 05 Aug 2013 23:07:49 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=36217#comment-25890 I read the news, and my reaction kept bouncing from one hand to the other. On the one hand, it's good that the WashPo's found a safe harbor. Bezos bought it for pocket change, and, if nothing else, can keep it going forever as a hobby. On the other hand, Jeff Bezos? I can't quite decide whether that's Citizen Kane monstrous or just another chapter of family ownership in the long history of the paper. And a bit confusingly, Bezos is buying the paper personally; it's not Amazon. So, on the one hand, the paper won't be distilled down to a Kindle app and all the unnecessary bits flensed away (probably; it would be automatic in a merger). But on the other, Amazon knows how to distribute stuff everywhere, and they'd figure out how to put a WashPo on every tablet and smartphone in the world, and overnight deliver a paper copy, for free with a Prime membership, if that floats your boat. Hmm... I read the news, and my reaction kept bouncing from one hand to the other.

On the one hand, it’s good that the WashPo’s found a safe harbor. Bezos bought it for pocket change, and, if nothing else, can keep it going forever as a hobby.

On the other hand, Jeff Bezos? I can’t quite decide whether that’s Citizen Kane monstrous or just another chapter of family ownership in the long history of the paper.

And a bit confusingly, Bezos is buying the paper personally; it’s not Amazon. So, on the one hand, the paper won’t be distilled down to a Kindle app and all the unnecessary bits flensed away (probably; it would be automatic in a merger). But on the other, Amazon knows how to distribute stuff everywhere, and they’d figure out how to put a WashPo on every tablet and smartphone in the world, and overnight deliver a paper copy, for free with a Prime membership, if that floats your boat.

Hmm…

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