Meanwhile Laurene Powell (Steve Jobs' widow) owns The Atlantic, and their subscriptions are up and they are now profitable:
* https://wan-ifra.org/2025/05/how-the-atlantic-keeps-subscrib...
* https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/11/media/the-atlantic-magazine-p...
* https://www.pugpig.com/2025/03/14/the-content-and-revenue-le...
One can have a well-run 'vanity project' or a badly-run one.
Atlantic is/was a monthly magazine so they're not trying to do 'scoops' as much as a traditional daily or weekly magazine. Of course in the current age they do have to post regularly somewhat for traffic: but they've generally been about taking a step and perhaps looking a the bigger picture.
For example, on the politics side they have David Frum, former speech writer for George W. Bush (#43):
* https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-frum/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Frum
And Tom Nichols, who taught international affairs and national-security at the U.S. Naval War College:
The problem I think is implied to be the choice to meddle with editorial not per se the choice for wealthy individuals to own such a publication.
I'd be interested with people who buy sports teams and interfere in running the team - does that go similarly poorly? Does it turn out that billionaires aren't great at choosing the team composition and strategy for NFL games ? Surprised Pikachu Face 'cos sure seems like Bezos doesn't understand how to write a great newspaper...
He's not trying to write a great newspaper, he's trying to write a newspaper that curries favor or at least doesn't raise the ire of the current administration.
And I think is a problem with news organizations that are part of larger conglomerates: it may be possible to use leverage on other parts of the business to affect how the news operations are done.
If (say) Bill Gates owned WaPo, he doesn't necessarily care much about how Microsoft is doing anymore. Whereas Bezos probably does still care about Amazon, as well as his space stuff.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post
[2]https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/the-new-york-times-made-mo...
[3]https://fourweekmba.com/the-new-york-times-print-subscribers...
“The publication has now shed 250,000 subscribers, or 10% of the 2.5 million customers it had before the decision was made public on Friday, according to the NPR reporter David Folkenflik”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/oct/29/washington-pos...
News cannot survive, because it has no real revenue stream.
the NYT figured out video games as a solution.
That said NYT crossword has existed for much longer, puzzle games are a longstanding feature of many newspapers.
Yes, the crossword has existed for longer, but it was never the core source of funding.
It’s interesting, and I doubt it can scale - every newspaper has its own puzzle section?
Yeah, they preach about truth, but the ink ran dry,
Bought the headlines, thought clout could buy the sky.
Bezos in the lobby, pullin’ strings, that’s the show,
Turned the Post into a post nobody wants to know.
Five hundred K deep, now it’s tumbleweed clicks,
Writers jump ship while the suits play tricks.
Never trust the press when it’s built on a throne,
Every page now reads like a PR zone.
Ad Homeminem, I don’t bow, I expose,
I talk numbers, they talk prose.
Media’s a mirror, cracked and vain,
You can’t buy truth with billionaire pain.