The Murder of The Washington Post
Today’s layoffs are the latest attempt to kill what makes the paper special.
www.theatlantic.com
(Credit: podcaster/commentator Emily Jashinsky and Reno 911! for the video clip below.)
Bezos Murders Washington Post
- Thread starter WyattEarp
- Start date
www.theatlantic.com
(Credit: podcaster/commentator Emily Jashinsky and Reno 911! for the video clip below.)
The state of news is in critical condition. Having a free press is essential to democracy. Unfortunately, the costs to produce news are high, and viewership/readership/subscribers continues to fall. And, that isn't even going into the whole right-wing spin that the MSM lies or is fake news.
The Washington Post used to be a beacon. It was a destination paper for the best and brightest reporters, much like the New York Times, LA Times or Chicago Tribune. But, Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, had to muck it up. First he killed the pro-Harris editorial, which saw 200,000 subscribers cancel. Now, he's turning it into a shell of its former self, ensuring that it will depend on wire services and basically have significantly less original reporting. Hell, they even fired a correspondent covering the Ukraine war via email. How fucked up is that.
Look, I understand that you cannot have a business lose tons of money every year. But, at the same time, this was an important institution. But it didn't have to be this way. The NYTs conitnues to make money. The Post could have improved things, spend money on talent and made it a must-read paper like it used to be.
Remember, Democracy Dies in darkness...
The Washington Post used to be a beacon. It was a destination paper for the best and brightest reporters, much like the New York Times, LA Times or Chicago Tribune. But, Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, had to muck it up. First he killed the pro-Harris editorial, which saw 200,000 subscribers cancel. Now, he's turning it into a shell of its former self, ensuring that it will depend on wire services and basically have significantly less original reporting. Hell, they even fired a correspondent covering the Ukraine war via email. How fucked up is that.
Look, I understand that you cannot have a business lose tons of money every year. But, at the same time, this was an important institution. But it didn't have to be this way. The NYTs conitnues to make money. The Post could have improved things, spend money on talent and made it a must-read paper like it used to be.
Remember, Democracy Dies in darkness...
But, do you?
This is a good point, but I am not sure a New York Times and Washington Post can both be very profitable. The two papers seem to offer readers similar stories and perspectives. I am not going to over-analyze WaPo's liberal content as the cause of their demise. Every city newspaper I pick up at a hotel is a very slimmed down version of its former glory including each that you mentioned.
Of note, the Wall Street Journal is still a very successful national platform. They seemed to have navigated the current media terrain of print, digital and video. Some will groan they hate the WSJ. The WSJ offers a good right of center perspective. They routinely offer criticism of the Trump Administration.
Newspapers die alone. The lights can be on though.
