CSotD: The Challenge of the Post-modern
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Perhaps you heard: Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post.
That could be the topic of Dan Wasserman's cartoon, except that Wasserman works for the Boston Globe, which was also sold this week, to the owner of the Boston Red Sox. Since both papers begin with the word "The," I'm going to assume the gag is an overall reference to Rich Guys Buying Newspapers.
And I didn't choose the word "gag" at random: This is a gag and not a statement, which is okay, since, at this stage, predictions are just guesswork anyway.
Anyone who has ever been involved in a corporate takeover knows that the first step is a reassuring statement from the new owner that he's not planning a lot of changes.
The second step is the doozy you need to watch out for.
Sometimes, the new owner (corporate or individual) actually plans changes and whips out the Long Knives.
But even if there aren't major changes planned, new management will want a team they're comfortable with. Any time you have a new person at the helm — whether the company changes hands or not — you'll see new department heads within a year or so, and there's a filter-down effect as either these new managers get rid of people they aren't comfortable with or people who aren't comfortable with them find other gigs.
It's no conspiracy. It's how things work. I was selling ads at a TV station that changed hands and got a new general manager, and my boss promoted me to marketing director. Then the new GM and I discovered that we really, really disliked each other. Guess who left?
That's Life, it costs a dime and I only had a nickel. Not saying I enjoyed the experience — I had little kids, so had to stick it out and wait to be fired — but it wasn't a conspiracy.
Most of the attention being paid to these two sales has centered on the Post's sale to Bezos, for two reasons:
1. The Washington Post is the paper of record for the national capital.
2. People have heard of Amazon, even if they haven't heard of Jeff Bezos.
The Globe is a major paper of great influence, but it's a local story, though it's a national paper. And hatred for the Bosox, despite being centered in the Fulcrum of the Known Universe, is not only regional but somewhat affectionate: There's not a lot of genuine, heart-felt hostility either in chortling over the Curse of the Bambino or in singing "Who's better than his brother Joe? Dominic DiMaggio!"
Amazon, by contrast, generates hostility that is not affectionate, including from some cartoonists whose publications are featured in the independent listings in the right hand rail here rather than in the Amazon widget because they don't want Amazon re-setting prices they've calculated to cover their costs.
And while I make commissions from the company, I respect that issue and that's why the independent listings are there.
Meanwhile, I don't despise Bezos for being rich because if I hated everyone who has more money than me, it would severely limit my ability to interact with anybody over the age of 12.
So with all that in mind …
Chris Britt went beyond the obvious and made a statement rather than a gag. More to the point, it's a statement that, without overreaching, does more than simply point out that Jeff Bezos has a lot of money and that Amazon is a big company.
Britt gets into the nitty-gritty of what is involved and touches on the move to electronic media without either snarky comments about dead trees or denigrating those who get their news on-line. It's a tasteful, matter-of-fact treatment of the subject.
Here's what strikes me about the sale:
1. It puts the Washpo into private hands. Bezos has specifically said that he doesn't intend the paper to work in the interest of the company so much as in the interest of readers and, while there's certainly a modicum of balloon juice in that statement, he's not going to be reporting back to a board of directors and panicking over the next quarter's numbers.
2. He was patient with Amazon and endured years of skeptical reviews and predictions without abandoning the mission.
3. The Grahams were nice folks, everyone agrees. But the Washington Post company also owned Kaplan Education, which seriously damaged the company's image of dedication to public service. It's like owning Ms. Magazine and also a chain of brothels.
4. Yes, Amazon developed the Kindle and has made some shall-we-say-thrifty innovations in the area of electronic publishing. But they still sell books. As Britt's cartoon states, the battle is over and the remaining question is simply one of adaptation and transistion. Bezos is well-established as a leading figure in that process.
5. Bezos has said he's leaving current management in place. That's a lot different than a vague promise of "not gonna make a lot of changes." I might buy some green bananas if I worked there.
Here's what the Post and its new owner are facing:
It's no longer hip to quote Peter Drucker that a business needs to define what the hell it does, but the corporate graveyard is full of managers who didn't understand the difference between "thinking outside the box" and "losing focus." And that includes those who thought "having a mission" meant appointing a committee to design a frothy bit of bafflegab.
A local paper must focus on local news. The problem for the Post is that it is not only a national news source but, because of what its "local community" does for a living, it really has little choice but to try to cover everything.
That means putting a lot of people not just out on the street but onto airplanes. Trying to do this on the cheap will be like not trying to do it at all, only more expensive.
Bottom Line: Bezos has on his hands the political equivalent of ESPN, but ESPN is firmly anchored in cable TV, which remains profitable, while the Post is anchored in print, which does not. ESPN's websites are secondary; the Post's cannot long remain so.
And I'm ending there. That last graf sums it up, and I'm encouraged by the fact that, if anybody can handle the challenge, it's Jeff Bezos.
Still, that's one helluva big "if."
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