Exploring the Amazon

Not long after Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, said he would pay $250 million of his own money for the chronically loss-making Washington Post, in August 2013, he sat next to the newspaper’s editorial-page editor, Fred Hiatt, at a dinner. It was a perfect opportunity to influence the Post’s line, but Bezos reportedly preferred to talk about other things on his mind, such as exploring the dark side of the moon. Technology, not journalism, is Bezos’s passion. So far he has been the sort of proprietor newshounds dream of, with a light touch on editorial matters and a willingness to finance experimentation and bear losses.

After years of shrinking ambitions and cost-cutting under its old owners, the Graham family, Posties are experiencing a period of expansion and excitement under Bezos. As other American papers have continued to cut staff, the Post has hired more than 100 newsroom employees since the takeover was announced. In its revamp, the Post is following some of Amazon’s tactics. Much as Bezos has made his e-commerce firm concentrate on building scale first, and worrying about profits later, he is making his newspaper concentrate first on building a broader national and international audience. Its website’s traffic in America has doubled since he announced the takeover, to 51m unique visitors in April. It is promoting its journalism more assiduously on social networks, is offering readers curated content from elsewhere on the internet, and is making its web pages load faster. What investors see as Amazon’s weakness -- a chronic disregard for profits as Bezos chases growth -- may be the Post’s biggest source of strength for the foreseeable future. Few newspapers can count themselves so lucky.