"My news feeds are filled with rants and laments about the bloodletting at the Washington Post, where billionaire owner Jeff Bezos just canned some 30% of the newsroom staff. As a fellow journalist who’s been laid off myself, I certainly empathize.
But there’s a pious tone to all the criticism of Bezos, as if he owes it to journalism to operate a storied news organization at a loss, indefinitely. He could easily do that. But the benevolent billionaire is a bad business model, and there’s no reason the news media should be exempt from the creative destruction that every other industry has to face in a competitive capitalist economy.
The First Amendment is a national treasure that protects the news media, and every citizen, from the power of tyrants to silence them. But the First Amendment doesn’t say publishers have the right to be funded. News organizations must finance themselves, like every other business or nonprofit. From what we know, the Post (which doesn’t report its finances since it is privately owned) has been losing money since well before Bezos bought it in 2013. Bezos is apparently moving to stem the losses, which includes shutting down underperforming sections such as sports and books and cashiering more than 300 journalists."
https://www.thepinpointpress.com/p/opinionbezos-washington-post-layoffs-creative-destruction-
The benevolent billionaire is a bad business model for the Washington Post, or any news company
byu/rickjnewman ineconomy
Posted by rickjnewman