Journalists respond with snark and awe to Washington Post sale

Journalists responded with shock, awe and a predictable amount of snark to the news that Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos had bought The Washington Post.

The news was announced Monday afternoon. Bezos himself, rather than his company, bought the Washington newspaper for roughly $250 million.

{mosads}The sale does not include certain publications owned by The Washington Post Company. Esquire‘s Chris Jones joked about Bezos’s decision not to buy the contrarian Slate.com, which The Washington Post Company owned for the last few years.

Jeff Bezos did not want Slate, just to be a contrarian.

— Chris Jones (@MySecondEmpire) August 5, 2013

The Week‘s Marc Ambinder offered a list of other acquisitions Bezos could make.

Based on your previous purchases, Jeff Bezos, you might also like:
— The Los Angeles Times
— The Orlando Sentinel
— Newsweek

— Marc Ambinder (@marcambinder) August 5, 2013

Niraj Chokshi, who recently joined the Post, wondered if the acquisition gives him access to Amazon.com’s Amazon Prime service.

So… does this mean I get Amazon Prime for free now?

— Niraj Chokshi (@nirajc) August 5, 2013

Meanwhile, Mike Memoli of the Tribune Company wanted to know where his PostPoints rewards would go.

Important question: what happens now to my PostPoints?

— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) August 5, 2013

Time‘s Michael Grunwald tied the purchase to the fact that The Washington Post Company receives a strong fraction of its revenue from non-journalistic assets such as Kaplan Inc., a nonprofit test preparation service.

We did always joke that the WP was a testing company with a nonprofit media subsidiary. Not so funny now.

— Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) August 5, 2013

There were sports comparisons too. The Washington Post’s Adam Kilgore compared the purchase to Washington Nationals Jayson Werth’s contract.

So, turns out The Washington Post is worth two Jayson Werths.

— Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) August 5, 2013

Now, if we can just get Bezos to buy the Redskins…

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) August 5, 2013

New York Daily News reporter Dan Friedman joked Bezos waited to buy the Post until after it had hired Chokshi and Reid Wilson, also formerly of National Journal.

Bezos clearly waited to make sure Post locked down @nirajc and @HotlineReid.

— Dan Friedman (@dfriedman33) August 5, 2013

Other reporters responded that the move was the right choice for the embattled paper. The Miami Herald‘s Marc Caputo predicted the paper would get stronger under Bezos’s ownership.

The Washington Post will remain a fantastic paper with a great staff and will likely get better under Bezos

— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 5, 2013

All Bezos needs to do is run The Washington Post like he did Amazon.com, Slate’s Matthew Yglesias tweeted.

If Jeff Bezos runs the Post the way he runs Amazon, it’ll be great news for journalism: http://t.co/zziTxpJeIT

— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 5, 2013

Economist and blogger Tyler Cowen predicted Bezos would have an “unorthodox” strategy for the paper.

Bezos will run it for profit, but with unorthodox strategy that he doesn’t wish to have to sell to Amazon shareholders. Good news I say.

— tylercowen (@tylercowen) August 5, 2013

Ezra Klein, who edits the Post’s Wonkblog, wrote that he was “shocked” and “hopeful” about the new ownership.

And still other journalists responded with reverence for the historic paper, and its previous owner, the Graham family, which published the paper during some of its biggest stories.

Hard to think of WaPo w/o the Grahams. There’s no classier person in DC than Don and it was the privilege of a lifetime working for him.

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) August 5, 2013

Nothing could be more stunning than @WashingtonPost sale never though the Graham family would do this

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) August 5, 2013

—This story was updated at 7:29 p.m.