‘Democracy dies in darkness’: Jeff Bezos vs The Washington Post

Fired Washington Post staff protesting

In a shocking development, the owner of the ‘Washington Post’ newspaper has fired thirty per cent of its staff. 

That owner is billionaire Jeff Bezos, who has owned the Post since 2013. The ‘Washington Post’ is 149 years old. Founded by Stilson Hutchins on December 6, 1877, it is the oldest and most widely circulated daily newspaper in Washington, D.C.

The Post had a staff of over 800, and around 300 were laid off. One correspondent received the bad news while on assignment in Ukraine, while another was in Italy covering the Winter Olympics. The paper’s sports, local and international news sections saw the worst layoffs. All staff photographers too, were fired.

The layoffs came as a surprise since the paper expanded after Bezos took over. But the company has experienced problems recently. But this is the nature of capitalism – entrepreneurs can’t expect the hen to lay golden eggs all the time. 

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos

By the late 19th century, when businessmen realised the potential of mass-circulation newspapers printed with steam-powered machinery, the term ‘media mogul’ came into being. They created large publishing chains.  The term ‘media baron’ was also used to describe people like William Randolph Heart and Joseph Pulitzer, who used sensationalist techniques to build huge circulation chains. But there is one thing that sets them apart from the billionaires who are driven to own media today – they were keen newspaper men. But today’s billionaires see owning the media purely as a means of political control. It isn’t just Jeff Bezos – billionaires own more than half the world’s largest media companies and nearly all of the main social media companies.

Bezos was once described as a Democrat and pragmatic moderate, but has now become pro-business, aligning himself with shifting political landscapes – in other words, a political opportunist. He is the founder of Amazon (founded 1994), which grew from an online bookstore into a global e-commerce and cloud computing giant. In addition, he owns the aerospace company Blue Origins and the personal investment firm Bezos Expeditions. He bought the ‘Washington Post’ for US Dollar($) 250 million. His personal fortune is worth $230 billion.

After the cuts, the Post’s books section will close, ironical considering that Bezos made his money selling books on the internet (with no reviews – maybe he thinks book reviews are useless). What he has done to the ‘Washington Post’ shows that Bezos doesn’t know how to run a profitable publication on the internet. Amazon isn’t a book publisher, it’s just a sales outlet. He hasn’t had the decency to offer a word of regret to those he fired.

Soon after he bought the Post, Bezos endorsed a new motto for the paper: “Democracy dies in darkness.” It now reads like a doomsday prophecy. The paper’s former owner Katherine Graham and its Watergate-era editor transformed a mediocre newspaper into an outstanding one. The paper earned not just profits but also the respect of readers. But by 2013, the paper’s owner (Katherine Graham’s son) realised that, due to increasing loss of advertising revenue, the company no longer had the money to invest in new technologies. Thus, it was sold to Jeff Bezos; they thought he was the right man to lead the newspaper to a new era.

The new partnership worked well during Donald Trump’s first term. Bezos kept his distance from editorial decisions, and invested in new technology. But readership fell during Joe Biden’s time. As Trump was clearly heading back to the White House in 2024, Bezos changed his mind. As the ‘Post’ showed signs of endorsing Kamala Harris, he blocked it. During Trump’s inauguration, he sat conspicuously in Oligarch Row and told the Post’s Opinion section to take a more conservative line. These moves alienated readers, and subscriptions began to fall. 

Bezos didn’t think twice about bankrolling ‘Melania,’ a self-defeating documentary about Donald Trump’s wife. American commentators say all that money could have gone into helping the Post. But that’s peanuts compared to what he has spent on his yachts. He has two – the 125.8 metre, three-masted sailing yacht Koru and the Abeona, a seventy-five million dollar ‘shadow boat’ that follows Koru with a helipad and space for extra staff.

But the Koru is his showpiece, costing an estimated five hundred million dollars, double what Bezos paid for the ‘Washington Post’. Annual maintenance runs to tens of millions of dollars. The yacht’s teak decks include spots for outdoor lounging and a swimming pool. Bezos clearly values the Koru more than the ‘Washington Post’, though a recent news story stated that ‘Trump’s New Tax Law Saved Amazon Billions.’ But one of the paper’s star foreign correspondents had to pack her bags somewhere in Ukraine, getting ready to return jobless to the United States.

Instead of guiding the paper through a difficult period, Bezos is hedging his bets, and focusing on outer space and good vacations. “Democracy dies in darkness” indeed.

Jeff Bezos’ luxury yacht the Koru