Afew months back when Amazon’s Jeff Bezos bought the iconic Washington Post from the Graham family for US$ 250 million, the share price of The Washington Post jumped to a twenty four month high, on investor expectations of innovation in the listless newspaper industry. For years the fortunes of print newspapers had been on the decline in the US with loss of both circulation and advertisement revenue. Though digital readership had risen during the last five years, there was still a resistance to news behind paywalls. This was largely because there was an abundance of free content available on the World Wide Web. Even as digital presence became a prerequisite to news dissemination amongst young readers, monetizing news remained a creative and technological challenge.
In search of a golden era
Soon after the acquisition Bezos announced that he was “eager to start asking questions and conducting experiments in the quest for a new golden era at The Washington Post.” The arrival of Jeff Bezos in the newspaper industry was a bit of a
surprise, because he is a long haul investor who does not stop at half measures. Analysts are aware that if Bezos has entered the newspaper industry he will not stop with one newspaper but attempt a consolidation of news as content globally along with rapid-fire technology upgradation. What surprised them was his entry into what many think is a sunset industry, at a time when his existing ventures at
Amazon were still growing at a fast clip and had plenty of growth opportunities as well as challenges.
Increasing cross media footprint
As expected Bezos did not waste time and got down to expanding business quickly, by signing up 100 small and medium newspapers across the states for an innovative digital partner program. Under the program the partner newspapers can offer The Washington Post’s digital suite free as an added value for their paid subscribers. Newspapers across the US are excited at having the opportunity of providing quality digital content from The Washington Post free and have rolled out new programs for enlisting new subscribers. Bezos stands to gain immensely because it expands his network and reach amongst US readers exponentially without any additional marketing effort.
The Washington Post‘s suite of digital products includes news, views, analysis, and advertisements that would reach US homes through the desktop, laptop, tablets, Kindle reader and smartphone and ultimately through Amazon TV when that arrives. In one brilliant stroke it would be the largest cross media disbursement of authentically produced news across the US and later across the world through multiple gadgets, devices and apps.
Digital Media First which represents 65 newspapers signed the partnership program with Steve Rossi, chief operating officer endorsing the deal, “We look forward to this mutually beneficial relationship in which we can offer additional value to our subscribers in the form of the quality digital content of The Washington Post, and The Washington Post’s much sought after and respected content will be more widely available across a broad footprint of dedicated digital news consumers.” The deal is open to all media organizations interested in participating in The Washington Post partner program and is likely to create a consolidation of news organizations globally.
