What’s happening at the Washington Post isn’t because of Jeff Bezos, its billionaire owner. He may be an evil man who’s made some bad choices, but the massive cuts of 30 percent of the workforce announced Wednesday are less due to his venality than the economics of newspaper publishing.
The business model that financed newspapers in the distant past broke apart 30 years ago, and since then, one by one our newspapers have been failing all around us.
I’ve reported on this hundreds of times over the years at Bnet, 7x7 and Substack, among other channels. With the rise of the Internet, the revenue sources driving newspapers, which were subscriptions, classified advertising, local business ads and newsstand distribution, started to dry up.
Online replacements replaced all of those elements in ways that were not under the newspaper owners’ control. For example, a free service, Craigslist, dominated classified advertising, and online banners raised ad revenue for search engines like Google that grew far larger than any newspaper could ever hope to be.
This decline in newspapers has been spreading since the mid-1990s and has reached the point where it is threatening elite institutions like the Post. This is one more factor aiding the rise of authoritarianism, unfortunately, which thrives in places where a free press is weakened, reducing the accountability that checks power and helps keep democracy alive.
"This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations," former Executive Editor Marty Baron said in a statement Wednesday. "The Washington Post's ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be further depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed more than ever."
HEADLINES:
News of federal agent drawdown met with skepticism, calls for more action (MPR)
Immigration agents draw guns and arrest activists following them in Minneapolis (AP)
Minnesota suburbs push back against ICE’s warehouse search (Axios)
Several states move to ban local cooperation in immigration arrests (WP)
A judge stands up to Trump, delivers a win for the rule of law (The Hill)
Don’t Look Now, But Dems Are Winning the DHS-Funding Fight (The Bulwark)
U.S.-Iran nuclear talks back on after Arab leaders lobby White House (Axios)
How Americans’ top concerns compare to more than 100 other countries, according to Gallup (AP)
Bezos orders deep job cuts at ‘Washington Post’ (NPR)
Trump ― who has called female journalists “loud,” “piggy,” “ugly,” “insubordinate,” “terrible,” “obnoxious,” “stupid and nasty” and “totally unprepared” in recent months ― just chastised another one for not smiling. Trump is facing heavy criticism over his latest comments. [HuffPost]
Mickey Lolich, Hero of the 1968 World Series, Dies at 85 (NYT)
What to know about the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, mother of ‘Today’ show’s Savannah Guthrie (AP)
Move Fast, but Obey the Rules: China’s Vision for Dominating A.I. (NYT)
Moltbook: Swarm Intelligence Or AI Slop? (Forbes)
Video: World’s fastest humanoid robot Bolt unveiled in China, runs 10 meters per second (IE)
OpenAI gets a Meta-style makeover with ads (Axios)
The Unsettling Rise of AI Real-Estate Slop (Atlantic)
Software stocks face an AI reckoning (Business Insider)
Pet Iguana Assumed He’d Move Out Of Starter Tank By Now (Onion)
MUSIC VIDEO:
“Minnesota” - Marsh Family adaptation of “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)”
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