It has been a year since Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Jeff Bezos acquired the Washington Post, not surprisingly this prompted critics to wonder if the paper would receive a digital update.
Bezos wants to transform Washington Post
Politco, a top competitor that is exclusively online, called the Washington Post old-school with no cutting-edge style that would make it relevant in today’s intense competition. Bloomberg Businessweek recently offered some hope for the company with this recent report, “For the last few months, a group inside the Post has been working on a new application that will offer a curated selection of news and photographs from the daily newspaper in a magazine-style, tablet-friendly format. The application will come pre-installed on Amazon’s newly updated Kindle Fire tablet, expected to launch later this fall with the larger 8.9 inch screen, according to people with knowledge of the Post’s plans.”
Jeff Bezos wants to promote the newspaper for free (at first) as a subscription on other tablets including the iPad. This report comes right after David Carr (from the New York Times) claimed Washington Post was in the midst of turning things around.
Jeff Bezos looks towards future
As with all great things, it is important to point out that Jeff Bezos has nothing but patience. When he acquired the newspaper in 2013, he admitted he didn’t have a solid plan to work on at that moment. He did say that he wanted to expand the budget by hiring more people. He already hired 100 more journalists as well as cut back pensions and retirement benefits of current employees.
Although Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Kindle tablets and Fire phones have not reached the level of success the company initially hoped for, it still offers something unique. Amazon already enjoys success with its eBooks and it might duplicate that success with virtual newspapers.
