Was Jeff Bezos's purchase of the Washington Post really just a gigantic "online shopping error"?

Close your eyes and make a wish, Chris: Here is washingtonpost.com's Chris Cillizza's view of "The future of the Washington Post -- in 2 tweets." Well, this is one view.

by Ken

I really intended to write about, and share, a piece from the washingtonpost.com poltical blog "The Fix," "Why you shouldn't underestimate Elizabeth Warren." But once the subject of the Washington Post came up, I felt I couldn't let it pass without saying something about yesterday's stunning development, the announcement that the Graham family is sellilng the paper, along with its smaller regional papers, to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

It's not as if I have any special insight, especially as i's still not clear what's happening within the Graham family and what that may have had to do with the decision, apparently made primarily by Donald Graham, who has passed on the running of the paper to his niece, Katharine Weymouth, but remains chairman and chief executive of the Washington Post Company, to sell the papers, with a view to providing a relatively stable future for the Post. This is something that continued family ownership presumably couldn't assure, especially in the context of a publicly traded company that has to answer to the sharks of Wall Street. Nor is it at all clear how Jeff Bezos is thinking about the property he has acquired. The $250 million he's paying for it makes it not an especially big deal for a guy said to be worth $25 billion, but in the world of American media the name of the Post still counts for something.

Certainly Bezos qualifies as an owner rich enough to be able to run the paper however he sees fit. We just don't know how he will see fit. The issue isn't just the paper's survival, but its survival as a journalistic entity whose survival matters. It seemed pretty unlikely that the paper could survive as a provider of meaningful journalism under the governance of Katharine Weymouth (who is of course the granddaughter of legendary publisher Katharine Graham, and for that matter the great-granddaughter of the family patriarch, Eugene Meyer, who bought the Post out of bankruptcy 80 years ago).

To be sure, Weymouth has told the staff that Bezos "has asked that I remain as your Publisher and CEO," and she is "honored to do so, " and has "asked the entire senior management team to continue in their roles as well." And it may be that, if she gets real support from the new owner, she will show new vitality in restoring the Post to journalistic credibility. But I think it's safe to say that, going forward, the governing vision is going to be Jeff Bezos's.

Naturally, everybody and his brother and sister will be chiming in, with or without special knowledge of what's going to happen. Obviously the "story" is going to include speculation about the future of the Boston Globe under the stewardship of its presumably benevolent new rich-guy owner, Boston Red Sox principal owner John Henry. And then there's the threat of the Los Angeles Times falling into the clutches of the Koch brothers -- a reminder that rich-guy owners come in an assortment of flavors. Nobody knows whether papers like the Post and the Globe and the L.A. Times can survive in a form that makes them matter -- or what form this might be.

To illustrate the range of speculation already being unleashed, newyorker.com already has:

* New Yorker editor David Remnick's curiously noncommittal report (bolstered by some presumed inside sourcs from his decade working for the Post);

* Matt Buchanan's notion of "Why Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post";

* John Cassidy's "Skeptic's View":

I have a nagging, if possibly unfounded, suspicion that his primary motivation in buying the Post is to protect Amazon's interests in the political battle, which is sure to come, over the company's monopolistic tendencies. Why do I suspect that? In part, because I am a skeptic. But also because it's just about the only explanation that makes sense.

* and, perhaps most informatively, another stunning revelation from newyorker.com's crack investigative arm, The Borowitz Report:

August 6, 2013

Amazon Founder Says He Clicked on Washington Post by Mistake

Posted by Andy Borowitz

SEATTLE (The Borowitz Report)—Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, told reporters today that his reported purchase of the Washington Post was a "gigantic mix-up," explaining that he had clicked on the newspaper by mistake.

"I guess I was just kind of browsing through their website and not paying close attention to what I was doing," he said. "No way did I intend to buy anything."

Mr. Bezos said he had been oblivious to his online shopping error until earlier today, when he saw an unusual charge for two hundred and fifty million dollars on his American Express statement.

After investigating with the credit-card company, he was informed that he had been charged for the purchase price of the entire Washington Post, which, he said, was "pure craziness."

"No way in hell would I buy the Washington Post," he said. "I don't even read the Washington Post."

Mr. Bezos said he had been on the phone with the Post's customer service for the better part of the day trying to unwind his mistaken purchase, but so far "they've really been giving me the runaround."

According to Mr. Bezos, "I keep telling them, I don't know how it got in my cart. I don't want it. It's like they're making it impossible to return it."

TOMORROW: From the grand speculation about the future of newspapers back to the narrow confines of today's Washington Post: What the Villagers are saying about Elizabeth Warren.

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