Article

2013-08-07 Home Front: Culture Wars

Jeff Bezos Is Bad News: Why the Washington Post Should Worry

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by badanov 2013-08-07 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 Imagine what Alec's squealing would be if the Koch brothers had been the buyers.

Posted by Pappy 2013-08-07 01:01|| 2013-08-07 01:01|| Front Page Top

#2 I avoid buying from Amazon as best I can

So he buys from Amazon.

A few years I was waiting in line at the bank because I had no option with a physical cheque, and the man in front of me was saying he never he used online banking when banks were open, because he didn't want to make bank workers out of work. I thought, presumably you came here by horse and cart to save the jobs of blacksmiths and farriers.

Self interest on the Left is always rationalized to be the public good.

Posted by phil_b 2013-08-07 05:32|| 2013-08-07 05:32|| Front Page Top

#3 "Progressive" hates progress. Stop the presses!

Posted by Spot 2013-08-07 08:06|| 2013-08-07 08:06|| Front Page Top

#4 Spot- on- Regressive progressives. Democratic political rag for years. They want welfare, they want votes from guess who? the takers. Who is left to pay the bills. Who is left to make donations. Who is left to purchase the Post. Long overdue reset. Woodward go cry to your handlers and that other guy? Bernstein, Who? :)

Posted by Dale 2013-08-07 08:44|| 2013-08-07 08:44|| Front Page Top

#5 WAPO, you DO remember the evil formula, right ?

In 1992, Mitt Romney was running Bain Capital, a private equity firm. Bain Capital bought American Pad & Paper Co. (Ampad) for $5 million.

Over the next several years Romney's firm bled the company dry. Hundreds of workers lost their jobs. Stockholders were left with worthless shares. Creditors and vendors were paid less than 50 cents on the dollar. While they were exploiting the company, Romney's firm charged Ampad millions of dollars in "management fees." In all, Romney and his investors reaped more than $100 million dollars from the deal.

Snicker, snicker.

Posted by Besoeker 2013-08-07 09:24|| 2013-08-07 09:24|| Front Page Top

#6 I grew up in a newspaper family and had worked at six papers, several of which were seriously diminished by 2009

Sensing a trend Alec?

Here's a hint...Amazon didn't destroy your precious, technology and a lack of talent did. Humble agate type, horrid. Everyone in the waiting room knew that mag sold at a loss for the circulation numbers for advertising revenues, now I can carry the entire works of Shakespeare and Vivaldi in a space smaller than my wallet - or throw birds against a brick wall, depending upon what kind of customer I am.

Posted by swksvolFF 2013-08-07 10:28|| 2013-08-07 10:28|| Front Page Top

#7 Yes, it's a shame the Grahams and Jeff Bezos were not as smart as Alec MacGillis! Had he been a consultant, he could have sold his advice to them for a profit.

Oh, there's that bad word, again...

Posted by Bobby 2013-08-07 12:35|| 2013-08-07 12:35|| Front Page Top

#8 swksvolFF, I'm not sure lack of talent is really the right term for the failure of newspapers. I would say subverting truth for messaging while alternatives exist is what did them in.

Posted by rjschwarz 2013-08-07 14:42|| 2013-08-07 14:42|| Front Page Top

#9 Well I remember the time when ordering English books at your local bookstore in Germany it took them at least 6 weeks to deliver at a price usually twice as high as in the UK or U.S.

Then came Amazon. Most English books arrive the next day, at the same price you'd pay in the country of origin.

Posted by European Conservative 2013-08-07 19:08|| 2013-08-07 19:08|| Front Page Top

#10 rjscwarz, I get what you are saying and agree. It just seems that going to college to learn how to write at a 3rd grade level would require the suppression of any talent possessed.

Here's some newspapering:

"Now we do assert and we declare, despite all the bolts and bars of the iniquitous legislature of Kansas, that persons have not the right to hold slaves in this territory. And we will emblazon it upon our banner in letters so large and language so plain that the infatuated invaders who elected the Kansas legislature, as well as that corrupt and ignorant legislature itself, may understand itso that, if they cannot read, they may spell it out, and meditate and deliberate upon it; and we hold that the man who fails to utter this self-evident truth, on account of the insolent enactment alluded to, is a poltroon and a slave, worse than the black slaves of our persecutors and oppressors. The constitution of the United States, the great Magna Charta of American liberties, guarantees to every citizen the liberty of speech and the freedom of the press! And this is the first time in the history of America that a body claiming legislative powers has dared to attempt to wrest them from the people. And it is not only the right, but the bounden duty of every freeman to spurn with contempt and trample under foot an enactment which thus basely violates the right of freemen. For our part we do and shall continue to utter this truth so long as we have the power of utterance, and nothing but the brute force of an overpowering tyranny can prevent us."

John Speer, Sept. 15, 1855, commenting on a Kansas Territory law forbidding any discussion or action deemed offensive to pro-slavery by a 2 year or more imprisonment.

"so that, if they cannot read, they may spell it out, and meditate and deliberate upon it;"

Love that line, lots going on there.

Posted by swksvolFF 2013-08-07 20:23|| 2013-08-07 20:23|| Front Page Top

23:05 European Conservative
22:57 Rambler in Virginia
22:38 Barbara
22:35 JosephMendiola
22:31 JosephMendiola
22:15 USN, Ret.
22:12 Redneck Jim
22:02 Rambler in Virginia
21:57 USN, Ret.
21:37 USN, Ret.
21:34 DarthVader
21:21 Procopius2k
21:19 Airandee
21:04 Alaska Paul
21:02 Alaska Paul
21:01 49 Pan
20:23 swksvolFF
19:50 swksvolFF
19:49 JosephMendiola
19:42 Rambler in Virginia
19:37 JosephMendiola
19:34 Rambler in Virginia
19:31 KBK
19:27 tu3031