Jeff Bezos of Amazon closed on the Washington Post today

[DaveO]

I thoroughly enjoy the quality of the Washington Post, its reporters and writers.  Its been sad to me to see the Post and all Newspapers die a slow painful death.

Bezos closed on the Post today and now owns it.  I do hope the quality of reporting is maintained.

[squidsdc]

Bezos actually took over yesterday-the closing I believe was on Monday. We all are hoping for great things. Unfortunately people don't want to pay for reading the news and without some creative thinking and an inflow of cash there wasn't a whole lot of hope that anyone could see to go forward. I see this as an exciting time for the industry, a merging of the print and online without (hopefully) sacrificing either, and look forward to seeing what great ideas he can bring to the table.

[Pat]

I have not gotten a nag screen telling me how many of this month's articles I've read since shortly after he took over.  That's true on Safari, where I have trouble deleting cookies, and on Firefox, where I use private browsing.  Am I the only one noticing this?  Have they quietly removed the paywall?

[LauraB]

I hope he hires some copy editors.  The quality of the grammar in recent years has been truly embarrassing.  

[The Hersch]

Perhaps the Bezos regime will result in a Washington Post that is not the vile, contemptible rag it has become in the last ten or fifteen years. The relentless Pete Peterson fellatio that goes on in the news section, seconded by Fred Hiatt on the editorial page, and cheer-led by the wonderful op-ed contributors like Charles Krauthammer, torture-advocate Marc Thiessen, George "no such thing as global warming" Will, Michael "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" Gerson, and the other broken down hacks infesting its pages, led me some time ago to a vow never to spend one cent on that horrible paper, and it is only reluctantly that I'll even visit their website to read Ezra Klein or Greg Sargent, fearful that I might stumble into the sewer that is Jennifer Rubin. I kinda doubt there will be a Washington Post 10 years from now, and the world will probably be a better place as a result.

[DonRocks]

Perhaps the Bezos regime will result in a Washington Post that is not the vile, contemptible rag it has become in the last ten or fifteen years. The relentless Pete Peterson fellatio that goes on in the news section, seconded by Fred Hiatt on the editorial page, and cheer-led by the wonderful op-ed contributors like Charles Krauthammer, torture-advocate Marc Thiessen, George "no such thing as global warming" Will, Michael "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" Gerson, and the other broken down hacks infesting its pages, led me some time ago to a vow never to spend one cent on that horrible paper, and it is only reluctantly that I'll even visit their website to read Ezra Klein or Greg Sargent, fearful that I might stumble into the sewer that is Jennifer Rubin. I kinda doubt there will be a Washington Post 10 years from now, and the world will probably be a better place as a result.

But do you *like* it?

The internet will be the end of many things, one of which is corporate arrogance.

That much I'll absolutely say,

and let the chips fall where they may.

[MsDiPesto]

I have not gotten a nag screen telling me how many of this month's articles I've read since shortly after he took over.  That's true on Safari, where I have trouble deleting cookies, and on Firefox, where I use private browsing.  Am I the only one noticing this?  Have they quietly removed the paywall?

I was hoping for the same happy result (I mean, I'm an Amazon Prime member, after all!) but they seem to be back.

[DaveO]

Perhaps the Bezos regime will result in a Washington Post that is not the vile, contemptible rag it has become in the last ten or fifteen years. The relentless Pete Peterson fellatio that goes on in the news section, seconded by Fred Hiatt on the editorial page, and cheer-led by the wonderful op-ed contributors like Charles Krauthammer, torture-advocate Marc Thiessen, George "no such thing as global warming" Will, Michael "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" Gerson, and the other broken down hacks infesting its pages, led me some time ago to a vow never to spend one cent on that horrible paper, and it is only reluctantly that I'll even visit their website to read Ezra Klein or Greg Sargent, fearful that I might stumble into the sewer that is Jennifer Rubin. I kinda doubt there will be a Washington Post 10 years from now, and the world will probably be a better place as a result.

Interesting.   The vast majority of typical political attacks on WashPost describe it as a liberal "rag".  You have identified every single opinion writer from the Conservative/Right  political perspective as a reason not to read the Post.

ya just can't win.  

Is it impossible to present balanced perspectives or at least if one doesn't consider individual perspectives "balanced" a smattering of perspectives from across the political perspective?

....and now back to food.....................

[hm212]

I was hoping for the same happy result (I mean, I'm an Amazon Prime member, after all!) but they seem to be back. 

I am sure it will be added free to Prime members for the Kindle edition only.

[DanielK]

The Post is now owned by Bezos himself, not by Amazon. There might be some cross-promotion at some point, but he would be cheating Amazon shareholders if there's a significant financial giveaway.

[Dr. Delicious]

I kinda doubt there will be a Washington Post 10 years from now, and the world will probably be a better place as a result.

This comment angers me. I know perhaps a dozen people who work at the Post, and all of them are smart, thoughtful, caring, professional, etc. These are real people, and the demise of the Post would have terrible consequences. To say the world would probably be a better place with out the newspaper that employs these people (and many, many others) is stupid and thoughtless. They produce a newspaper, after all. Comments like this serve no purpose and have no place on this board. I should say, instead, that I think comments like this detract value from this board.

[DaveO]

I have not gotten a nag screen telling me how many of this month's articles I've read since shortly after he took over.  That's true on Safari, where I have trouble deleting cookies, and on Firefox, where I use private browsing.  Am I the only one noticing this?  Have they quietly removed the paywall?

I have a digital subscription but don't always access it.  I got hit by the nag screen today.  Its still in effect.

I kinda doubt there will be a Washington Post 10 years from now, and the world will probably be a better place as a result.

I didn't focus on this sentence the first time.  Geez.  I so value reporting, investigative reporting, and a source with some credibility as opposed to the flood of nonsense that is all over the web from completely unreliable, non credible, non responsive, non accountable sources.

I hope the Post and other sources of journalism continue for a long time to come.