Why did Jeff Bezos buy The Washington Post?

The paper lost $73 million last year, which tells me Bezos is either stupid … or cagey as a fox.

Jeff Bezos must have had good reasons to buy a newspaper he knew would always bleed money. (Photo from dnyuz.com).

According to this article, The Washington Post lost $73 million in 2023 and, one assumes, will lose even more in 2024.

I also learned that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the paper ten years ago for $250 million. (Talk about your spectacular returns on investment.)

Since I know Jeff Bezos is not dumb, one has to wonder why he would have bought a newspaper that he must have known was going to bleed money.

What you lose with A, you more than make up

with B, C and D …

My conclusion is that Bezos bought this media property because owning this influential “narrative-creating” newspaper would somehow benefit his other companies.

In Business School, I think this might be considered a version of a “loss leader.” As I understand it, companies sometimes decide it’s worthwhile to lose money on Product A or Division A because this will allow them to make more money with another division of their company.

That is, the fact he owns The Washington Post probably allows Bezos to make more money with Amazon or other businesses he runs - for example, from lucrative government contracts.

This, as I understand it, has actually happened as Amazon and its affiliate businesses have several lucrative contracts with the government and even the Department of Defense.

I also note that The Washington Post once owned Newsweek magazine, which the company sold for … $1. Not $1 million dollars - 100 pennies. (I wish I owned a business that could lose tens of millions of dollars every year and still get $250 million for it.)

A Protection Racket of another kind …

Also, owning The Washington Post gives Bezos great leverage or provides a form of protection or insurance against the world’s real Mafia - the U.S. government.

The Post can certainly protect and promote all the government’s favored bogus narratives by the stories editors choose to run … and, perhaps more importantly, the stories it chooses to not investigate or publish.

The government, one assumes, might appreciate this help and reward a news organization that is so willing to “play ball” with Big Brother. (This might be called a “carrot.”)

Similarly, it’s possible savvy business owners like Bezos understand that the only entity that can put him out of business would be the U.S. government. 

It’s perhaps prudent insurance to own a newspaper that could turn on a dime and start exposing Washington D.C. scandals if the 900-pound Gorilla known as Uncle Sam starts to go overboard with its harassment.

(This is known as a “stick,” which is usually employed by the government, but could - hypothetically - be employed by the “watchdog” press if it was ever so inclined).

Was Jeff Bezos recruited by the CIA?

The possibility has occurred to me that Jeff Bezos may have been recruited to purchase The Washington Post as the CIA and our Deep State rulers also clearly knew the paper was at the risk of going under …. unless it had an owner with unlimited amounts of money (someone who could easily afford to lose $73 million/year).

It turns out that almost every big journalism or media company must have an owner who can afford to lose millions or billions of dollars from these media “investments.” (This is because at least half the country now knows the MSM is completely captured and these citizens will never subscribe to one of these newspapers or magazines).

Almost all of the Big Media companies are owned by companies that have other businesses. It’s possible the arrangement - or quid pro quo - is that “if you buy this company (and keep it going and promote all the authorized narratives), we’ll make sure the stock price of your other companies continues to go sky-high (via the rigged stock market).”

Amazon and Bezos certainly made a killing in Covid years as retail customers could no longer buy the products this company sells at local Mom-and-Pop businesses, which were shut down … by the government.

At the same time, the Washington Post’s army of journalists were filing as many stories as they could, proclaiming this was the only way to save the country’s grandmothers and children.

Except for The New York Times, The Washington Post is arguably the most important “narrative-creating” news organization in the country. This is because the paper is located in the middle of the most toxic swamp on the planet.

It doesn’t matter if nobody in Peoria reads the paper. Every elected official, key bureaucrat, lobbyist, foundation CEO and assignment editor at all the other mainstream news organizations reads this particular fish wrapper cover-to-cover every day.

In thinking about The Post’s hemorrhaging of money, one has to wonder how much money someone has to be making from his other businesses to tolerate hundreds of millions of dollars in cumulative losses (with more surely to come).

I think I’ve identified the Mother-of-All Ironies …

Another excerpt from the above-linked article jumped out to me:

“In the first seven years after Mr. Bezos bought The Post, the newsroom staff more than doubled and subscriptions increased sharply, helped by the paper’s vigorous reporting on the Trump administration. But The Post’s audience has halved since the 2020 election …”

Key take-away for me: The best thing - probably the ONLY thing - that could keep The Post from losing even more money is if Donald Trump is elected president again!

As this excerpt tells us, The Post’s audience would probably double again if Trump was elected a second time.

As it turns out, all the members of the captured liberal media prosper and have a much a much larger audience and ratings when Trump is president. (Larger audience translates into more paid advertising and higher advertising rates).

This is because the Left is galvanized by their panic that Trump is going to become president again and then do … I don’t know what. Throw all the liberals into a concentration camp? Keep rabid Democrats from earning a living?

Ironically enough, the best thing that could happen to The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, CNBC, etc. is if Trump was/is elected again. (This makes me wonder if some members of the captured left are secretly pulling for Trump.)

If Trump does NOT win, all these media and news companies are going to be bleeding even greater amounts of money. 

These media companies will need to recruit even more billionaires to keep them afloat and require even more “excellence-in-journalism” grants from Bill Gates … and more ad buys for “safe-and-effective” vaccines purchased by the HHS, NIAD, CDC, state health agencies and media’s long-time saviors, Big Pharma.

One thing’s for certain: the entire mainstream media can’t go bankrupt at the same time. Somebody has to keep paying the light bills and pay the journalists who are still in the newsroom. “The Authorized Narratives” have to be protected by someone.

If this doesn’t happen, all that would be left would be the independent “alternative media” - which would be the Deep State’s worst nightmare.

Safe prediction: The Washington Post will never go under (nor will The New York Times).

If “Joe Biden” - or his replacement - is re-elected in a few months and the calamitous threat of Trump being re-elected is averted, Bezos might lose a  billion dollars on The Post in the next four years.

Which no doubt means he’ll make an extra $20 billion with Amazon and his various side businesses.

… Meanwhile, back in Troy, Alabama, I dance a little Two Step every time I get one new paid subscriber on Substack.

I guess it’s possible Mr. Bezos will hire me as a Washington Post staff reporter … which might happen about the same time hell freezes over … which, The Post assures us will never happen with Global Warming.

My main hope at the moment is that Substack hasn’t been captured by these same people and organizations.

Bill’s secret button is above (in red) and my secret link is below (in black):

https://ko-fi.com/billrice