A day after the Graham family’s stunning announcement that it is selling the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos, the big question remains: Why is Amazon’s founder betting on old media? Here’s one answer: Jeff Bezos loves content, and he always has.
This hasn’t always been obvious. Amazon’s most visible accomplishments include its massive fulfillment network, so adept at efficiently moving warehouses to doorsteps; its domination of the e-books universe, from the Kindle to the world of content created for it; and its management of massive amounts of customer data in order to coldly personalize Amazon’s site for each of its 200 million customers.
