What do newspaper editors, shopkeepers, commodities traders and railroad engineers have in common? They’re all professions in the news in part because they’re being threatened or otherwise marginalized by digital innovation.
The Washington Post Co. announced on Aug. 5 that it has agreed to sell the iconic newspaper and other old media assets to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos for $ 250 million. The news followed The New York Times Co.’s sale of the Boston Globe to Boston Red Sox owner John Henry for $ 70 million, just 6% of the $ 1.1 billion it paid for the Globe 20 years ago.
Following the Post Co.’s announcement, the online chatter among journalists was less about the big data, ecommerce, UI or other digital innovations Bezos could bring to the declining media properties, and more about the future of the newspaper’s reporters, editors and journalistic standards under the “billionaire savior” or “media’s new baron.”