Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.08% Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is buying the Washington Post WPO +4.27% for $250 million in an out-of-the-blue deal that captures the newspaper industry's economic decline and the shift of power from old media to Silicon Valley.
The sale puts one of the most famous newspapers in the U.S.—the publication credited with breaking the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation almost 40 years ago—in the hands of a Web businessman who rose to prominence only in the past 20 years.
It comes as many newspapers are struggling to survive. Print newspaper ad revenues fell 55% between 2007 and 2012, according to the Newspaper Association of America, as advertisers and readers have defected to the Web. Some newspapers have been forced to slash costs and in some cases file for bankruptcy. Just three days ago the New York Times Co. NYT +1.68% sold the Boston Globe for $70 million, having paid $1.1 billion for it in 1993.
The Internet is "transforming almost every element of the news business," Mr. Bezos said in a letter to Washington Post employees. "There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment," Mr. Bezos wrote.
He added that he won't be involved in the day-to-day management of the newspaper.
In an interview Monday, Washington Post Co. Chairman Don E. Graham praised Mr. Bezos's track record as a well-connected industry innovator with the patience to make difficult businesses profitable, but he acknowledged challenges.
"Jeff is a business person, not a magician. He is going to have to work as hard as everyone else to figure out the problem of news. But he brings a lot," Mr. Graham said.
Early this year, Mr. Graham brought in investment bank Allen & Co. to begin looking for someone to buy the Washington Post. The decision to sell had come after months of reflection among the company's board members, said one person familiar with the situation. Mr. Graham "couldn't see how to grow [the paper] and began to wonder if there was a better owner," the person said.
Mr. Graham spoke with many prospects directly, drawing on his extensive network in Silicon Valley. Mr. Graham, who has been an adviser to Facebook Inc. FB -1.63% chief Mark Zuckerberg, has spent years building relationships with technology titans, including Mr. Bezos, who had helped him make important hires such as Amazon veteran Vijay Ravindran, the head of WaPo Labs.
What remains of Washington Post Co. after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos purchased the Washington Post newspaper for $250 million? Miriam Gottfried of WSJ's Heard on the Street reports on MoneyBeat. Photo: AP.
Several months ago, Mr. Graham's bankers reached out to Mr. Bezos, said a person with direct knowledge of the deal. Initially, Mr. Bezos held back, citing a lack of time to properly deal with a transaction. Then, in July, Mr. Bezos wrote an email to Mr. Graham saying, "If you're interested, I am," said another person familiar with the situation.
Mr. Bezos, who launched Amazon in 1995, is worth about $26 billion, courtesy of his stake in the e-commerce giant. As part of a planned stock sale, Mr. Bezos took in $185 million this month, representing less than 1% of his holdings. Forbes ranked him as the 19th most-wealthy man in the world, just ahead of Google Inc.'s Larry Page.
Mr. Bezos wasn't available for an interview.
In discussing a possible deal, Messrs. Graham and Bezos had two three-hour conversations in person in Sun Valley, Idaho, before Mr. Bezos sent a personal team to Washington, D.C. At the time, the company was talking to other suitors, a small collection of individuals, like Mr. Bezos, and strategic companies, said people familiar with the talks.
Post Co. will change its name after the sale, although a new name hasn't been disclosed.
The company, which will keep its interests in education and television, will retain its real estate, and a few journalism properties, including the website Slate.com and Foreign Policy magazine. Recently, Post Co. has diversified with small acquisitions in health-care and furnace parts.
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Over the past decade, the Post's daily newspaper circulation has shrunk to 472,000 in 2012 from 769,000 in 2002. In the company's newspapers division, revenue fell 31% to $582 million during the same period, according to regulatory filings. Meanwhile, operating income over the decade went from a profit of $109 million in 2002 to a loss of $53.7 million in 2012.
To combat the losses, the Post has gone through rounds of cost cuts. This year, it replaced Marcus Brauchli as editor of the paper with Martin Baron.
The Post has already sold Newsweek in 2010 after a sharp decline at the newsweekly. While the flagship newspaper was only a small part of the company—which also owns cable systems, TV stations and the Kaplan education business—a slump at Kaplan had added to financial stresses on the company.
Mr. Graham, whose grandfather Eugene Meyer acquired the paper in 1933, said in a letter to staff that "as the newspaper business continued to bring up questions to which we have no answers," he and Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, his niece, had begun "to ask ourselves if our small public company was still the best home for the newspaper."
The sale puts one of the most famous newspapers in the U.S.—the publication credited with breaking the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation almost 40 years ago—in the hands of a Web businessman who rose to prominence only in the past 20 years.
It comes as many newspapers are struggling to survive. Print newspaper ad revenues fell 55% between 2007 and 2012, according to the Newspaper Association of America, as advertisers and readers have defected to the Web. Some newspapers have been forced to slash costs and in some cases file for bankruptcy. Just three days ago the New York Times Co. NYT +1.68% sold the Boston Globe for $70 million, having paid $1.1 billion for it in 1993.
The Internet is "transforming almost every element of the news business," Mr. Bezos said in a letter to Washington Post employees. "There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment," Mr. Bezos wrote.
He added that he won't be involved in the day-to-day management of the newspaper.
In an interview Monday, Washington Post Co. Chairman Don E. Graham praised Mr. Bezos's track record as a well-connected industry innovator with the patience to make difficult businesses profitable, but he acknowledged challenges.
"Jeff is a business person, not a magician. He is going to have to work as hard as everyone else to figure out the problem of news. But he brings a lot," Mr. Graham said.
Early this year, Mr. Graham brought in investment bank Allen & Co. to begin looking for someone to buy the Washington Post. The decision to sell had come after months of reflection among the company's board members, said one person familiar with the situation. Mr. Graham "couldn't see how to grow [the paper] and began to wonder if there was a better owner," the person said.
Mr. Graham spoke with many prospects directly, drawing on his extensive network in Silicon Valley. Mr. Graham, who has been an adviser to Facebook Inc. FB -1.63% chief Mark Zuckerberg, has spent years building relationships with technology titans, including Mr. Bezos, who had helped him make important hires such as Amazon veteran Vijay Ravindran, the head of WaPo Labs.
What remains of Washington Post Co. after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos purchased the Washington Post newspaper for $250 million? Miriam Gottfried of WSJ's Heard on the Street reports on MoneyBeat. Photo: AP.
Several months ago, Mr. Graham's bankers reached out to Mr. Bezos, said a person with direct knowledge of the deal. Initially, Mr. Bezos held back, citing a lack of time to properly deal with a transaction. Then, in July, Mr. Bezos wrote an email to Mr. Graham saying, "If you're interested, I am," said another person familiar with the situation.
Mr. Bezos, who launched Amazon in 1995, is worth about $26 billion, courtesy of his stake in the e-commerce giant. As part of a planned stock sale, Mr. Bezos took in $185 million this month, representing less than 1% of his holdings. Forbes ranked him as the 19th most-wealthy man in the world, just ahead of Google Inc.'s Larry Page.
Mr. Bezos wasn't available for an interview.
In discussing a possible deal, Messrs. Graham and Bezos had two three-hour conversations in person in Sun Valley, Idaho, before Mr. Bezos sent a personal team to Washington, D.C. At the time, the company was talking to other suitors, a small collection of individuals, like Mr. Bezos, and strategic companies, said people familiar with the talks.
Post Co. will change its name after the sale, although a new name hasn't been disclosed.
The company, which will keep its interests in education and television, will retain its real estate, and a few journalism properties, including the website Slate.com and Foreign Policy magazine. Recently, Post Co. has diversified with small acquisitions in health-care and furnace parts.
Enlarge Image
Over the past decade, the Post's daily newspaper circulation has shrunk to 472,000 in 2012 from 769,000 in 2002. In the company's newspapers division, revenue fell 31% to $582 million during the same period, according to regulatory filings. Meanwhile, operating income over the decade went from a profit of $109 million in 2002 to a loss of $53.7 million in 2012.
To combat the losses, the Post has gone through rounds of cost cuts. This year, it replaced Marcus Brauchli as editor of the paper with Martin Baron.
The Post has already sold Newsweek in 2010 after a sharp decline at the newsweekly. While the flagship newspaper was only a small part of the company—which also owns cable systems, TV stations and the Kaplan education business—a slump at Kaplan had added to financial stresses on the company.
Mr. Graham, whose grandfather Eugene Meyer acquired the paper in 1933, said in a letter to staff that "as the newspaper business continued to bring up questions to which we have no answers," he and Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, his niece, had begun "to ask ourselves if our small public company was still the best home for the newspaper."
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