Bezos selling WPost to buy Commanders?

As a journalist, I’d hate to see the Times buy the Post.

And I have no problem seeing how they have 3m subscribers. Their domestic and international coverage is terrific, and I’d take it over the Times (not factoring in Athletic content) on sports every day.

 

The NYT buying the Post sounds logical in some ways, illogical in others. Can't imagine Bezos needing to sell the Post to buy anything.

I have digital subs to both. I enjoy a lot of thngs in both, and don't care for some. The Post's food section is not as good. NYT's travel is good at times and at others I think they're too highbrow. Politics and opinion ebb and flow. Some is good, some is bullshit, some makes me scratch my head wondering how the hell anyone let it get published. But that's what newspapers always have had - good, bad, questionable and so on.

 

Rupert about to make his move? https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/rupert-murdoch-calls-off-proposed-fox-news-corp-merger.html

 

Rupert might kick it if he found out The Washington Post was for sale. That erection would last for four weeks, not four hours.

 

IMO, the Times has more resources, and businesswise is much better run (buying Wordle latest example). Of course its arts and business coverage is better, because NYC is an arts and business center and DC is not. Post has better sports, better metro, and of course better political coverage, because that's the industry in their one industry town. IMO the writing in the Post is consistently superior because they don't try to hammer everyone into the paper's dominant style, although I admit the Times' deadpan style can be deadly effective at times. Food coverage is a big Times advantage, both in reading terms and really big in monetary terms. My daughter lives in France and subscribes to the Times just for that.
It would be a terrible loss if either paper slipped from their current level of performance.

 

I subscribe to both. I think the Times is a better paper but the Post is excellent also. I believe having three national papers (including the Wall Street Journal here) is better than two, I also think the Post only gets sold to anyone is if Bezos tires of it. Given the wealth of Bezos the Post is more a hobby than an investment.

But in a race between financial and journalism interests the former is the very heavy favorite (apologies to whoever I stole that line from.

And upon further reflection, if the Post went up for sale and Pupert is still alive and and somewhat sentient, News Corp would offer a higher price than the NYT. Murdoch is both richer and more ego driven than the owners of the NYT and would offer a higher price.

 

NYT is still public, right?

 

Yes, but still controlled by the Sulzberger family through a class of stock they have that gives them super voting rights.

 

Maybe some hyperlocal mom-and-pop will buy the Post. They can run AP wire on Georgetown and Deadmanders and do features on AOC's junior varsity cheer squad.

More likely they kill AP and the nation is subjected to outdoors writers pulling tractor tires out of the Potomac.

 

Tires make decent fishing cover for a while, although they're not the best thing to have in a waterway.

Finding the batteries the Coast Guard dumps around its navigation beacons is a better use of time than removing tires, though.

 

Let's take a live look at the inaugural board meeting of the WaPo's brand new owners!

 

We are operating under the belief that their sports section is currently the best print section in the country, correct?