Bezos won't make print profitable, and that doesn't matter
Lots of people are wondering what it means for Jeff Bezos to buy the venerable Washington Post Company . Can he make it profitable again. I say, that's not the question. there is a historical reality that everyone is ignoring about journalism: it wasn't supposed to be profitable. From the beginning of this country, which was in large part launched by a healthy dose of print journalism , newspapers were money pits. Their primary goal in life was to support a certain cause. For example, Joseph Pulitzer was Missouri politician who amassed a significant personal wealth. He bought an interest in one paper, flipped it quickly to another investor and then used that profit to buy another. He merged the two papers the St. Louis Post Dispatch supporting Republican causes. His personal wealth continued to grow so he bought the New York World , which was bleeding cash at the time, and went into a frenzied competition for readers with the N...