In the Nation's Capital, the Washington Post's publishers and editors have been busy expressing a bittersweet angst at the news organization's sale to Amazon.com (News - Alert) billionaire and technology investor Jeff Bezos. Management is trying to spin this as a new hope for the institution in an era of declining newspaper sales and subscription -- paper dollars transforming into clicks of digital pennies. But no one should expect results overnight -- that's not the way Bezos works.

The news industry has been hit with several technology revolutions in the past twenty years. First, the Internet and websites shifted people from paper to digital. Suddenly, news organizations were faced with going from a single media form (print) to having to deal with multiple media types, including audio and video. If this wasn't bad enough, the newspaper became truly "yesterday's news" as electronic publishing and a 24-hour news cycle pumped by CNN and the rest of the cable world. Mobile phones plus Twitter (News - Alert) and other social media only accelerated the shift away from Ye Old Print. 


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The Post has been watching subscribers and revenues decline for years, so it shouldn't be a big surprise management of the Washington Post conglomerate was looking to detach the newspaper from its money-making holdings in education, cable, and broadcast television.

Enter Jeff Bezos, picking up the Washington Post in his low-key, below-the-radar style for $250 million. The Post gets a white-knight owner that understands the underlying technologies that are killing traditional newspapers, while keeping its editorial staff at this point in time.  He has built a Fortune 500 company combining the best of the digital world to delivery physical goods, so he has a different mindset than the previous owners.

"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," Bezos wrote in a letter to Post employees. "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... I’m excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention."

Bezos is no lover of paywall journalism, so it will be interesting to see what direction he sets. Speculation is high for electronic commerce tie-ins with Amazon.com and the Kindle.   Or the Post could be distributed nationally via Amazon.com next-day/same-day service, leveraging the efficiencies of the Amazon distribution system.

There's also a Greater Good aspect involved. The Washington Post is not just any fishwrap, but has a unique combination of historic institution and political reach as the newspaper of the nation's capital. Until now, Bezos has been relatively low-key in politics and society. Buying the Post gives him a national podium that can be solidified and expanded.

"Journalism plays a critical role in a free society, and The Washington Post -- as the hometown paper of the capital city of the United States -- is especially important," Bezos wrote. "I would highlight two kinds of courage the Grahams have shown as owners that I hope to channel. The first is the courage to say wait, be sure, slow down, get another source. Real people and their reputations, livelihoods and families are at stake. The second is the courage to say follow the story, no matter the cost. While I hope no one ever threatens to put one of my body parts through a wringer, if they do, thanks to Mrs. Graham’s example, I’ll be ready."

Based upon Bezos' letter to his new employees, he expects the news organization to continue its tradition of hard-hitting national political stories dating back to Watergate -- and is prepared to back them up when the topics get hot.