Jeff Bezos to the Washington Post - an open letter
Bezos published this open letter yesterday in the
Washington Post:
Jeff Bezos on Post purchase
You�ll have heard the news, and many of you will greet it with a degree of apprehension. When a single family owns a company for many decades, and when that family acts for all those decades in good faith, in a principled manner, in good times and in rough times, as stewards of important values � when that family has done such a good job � it is only natural to worry about change.
So, let me start with something critical. The values of The Post do not need changing. The paper�s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners. We will continue to follow the truth wherever it leads, and we�ll work hard not to make mistakes. When we do, we will own up to them quickly and completely.
I won�t be leading The Washington Post day-to-day. I am happily living in �the other Washington� where I have a day job that I love. Besides that, The Post already has an excellent leadership team that knows much more about the news business than I do, and I�m extremely grateful to them for agreeing to stay on.
There will, of course, be change at The Post over the coming years. That�s essential and would have happened with or without new ownership. The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about � government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports � and working backwards from there. I�m excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention.
This is going to be fun to watch. I cannot imagine a better CEO for the paper as we transition from print to online.
Posted by DaveH at August 6, 2013 9:06 PM