‘Washington Post’ sold to Amazon chief

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will buy the Washington Post for $250m (€188m) in a surprise deal that ends the Graham family’s 80 years of ownership and hands one of America’s most influential publications to the businessman whose internet company transformed retailing.

Bezos, hailed by many as technology visionary, called his acquisition a personal endeavour and reassured employees and readers of the 135-year-old newspaper that he will preserve its journalistic tradition, while driving innovation.

The acquisition, the latest in a flurry of deals for print publications including the New York Times Co’s sale of the Boston Globe for $70m, is a another sign of the challenges newspapers face as advertising revenue and readership decline.

Shares of the Washington Post Co climbed more than 5% to $599.85 after-hours — their highest in almost five years.

Donald Graham, chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Co, said he and his niece, Katharine Weymouth, the Post’s publisher, made the decision to put the newspaper up for sale earlier this year after looking at its financial forecasts.

“For the first time in either of our lives we said to each other: Is ownership by the Washington Post Co the best thing for the newspaper? We could keep it alive, that wasn’t the issue. The issue was could we make it strong?”

Graham and Bezos discussed the deal at the annual media and tech conference hosted by investment bank Allen & Co in Sun Valley, Idaho, in July. The investment bank had been retained to gauge potential buyer interest, and is now the banker on the deal.

Graham’s company had talked to no more than a dozen parties about selling the paper.

“I named a price and Jeff agreed to pay it,” said Graham, who thought Bezos would be unlikely to buy. “To my surprise, when [Allen & Co] said they would call him, I said that would be great but I didn’t think he would be interested.”

The investment bank ended up advising on the deal.

At a meeting in January, Graham said longtime friend and former Washington Post board member Warren Buffett referred to Bezos as the best CEO in the US for his tech and business acumen.

“I asked [Bezos] why he wanted to do it and his reasons are the best ones,” Graham said. “He believes in what newspapers do and what the Post does, and that it’s important to the country.”

The paper’s business and online news sites such as Slate, will remain with the Washington Post Co.