Jeff Bezos Purchases Washington Post for $250 Million

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos personally purchased The Washington Post and its affiliated publications for $250 million, ending the Graham family’s four-generation stewardship of one of America’s most influential newspapers. The sale marked a watershed moment in billionaire media capture, placing control of a major democratic institution in the hands of one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.

The Transaction

Bezos acquired the flagship Washington Post newspaper along with several related publications including Express newspaper, The Gazette Newspapers, Southern Maryland Newspapers, Fairfax County Times, El Tiempo Latino, and Greater Washington Publishing. Bezos structured the purchase through a limited liability company called Nash Holdings, making clear that he was buying the newspaper personally—not through Amazon.com.

At the time of purchase, Bezos was worth approximately $25.2 billion, making the $250 million price tag about 1% of his net worth. The transaction closed on October 1, 2013.

Context: Newspaper Industry in Crisis

The sale occurred during a period of acute crisis for traditional newspapers. Just days before Bezos’s purchase, The New York Times Company sold The Boston Globe for $70 million—a fraction of the $1.1 billion the Times had paid for it in 1993. This 93% loss in value over two decades illustrated the steep decline in newspaper valuations and the broader challenges facing print journalism.

Washington Post Company chairman and CEO Donald E. Graham explained that “years of familiar newspaper-industry challenges” prompted the sale decision. The newspaper division had generated minimal profits or sustained losses in recent years, partly due to pension buyout costs.

Significance: Democratic Institution Under Billionaire Control

The purchase raised fundamental questions about media independence and democratic accountability. Bezos now controlled a newspaper with outsized influence over national politics and policy while simultaneously running Amazon—a company with:

• Growing dependence on federal government contracts (Amazon Web Services had already won a $600 million CIA cloud computing contract in March 2013)
• Aggressive tax avoidance strategies reducing federal tax obligations
• Intense lobbying on issues ranging from sales tax to antitrust regulation
• Labor practices frequently criticized by journalists and activists

The acquisition created structural conflicts of interest that would play out in subsequent years as the Post covered Amazon, technology regulation, labor issues, and tax policy—all areas where Bezos had direct financial stakes worth billions of dollars.

Historical Pattern: Tech Billionaire Media Acquisition

Bezos’s purchase fit a broader pattern of tech billionaires acquiring legacy media institutions during periods of financial vulnerability:

• 2012: Chris Hughes (Facebook co-founder) purchased The New Republic
• 2013: John Henry purchased The Boston Globe
• Later acquisitions would include Marc Benioff’s purchase of TIME Magazine and Laurene Powell Jobs’s purchase of The Atlantic

These transactions concentrated media power in the hands of individuals whose fortunes depended on the same technology platforms and business models that newspapers were meant to scrutinize. The Washington Post acquisition was particularly significant given the newspaper’s role as a watchdog over federal government operations—operations increasingly intertwined with Amazon’s business interests.

The Bezos Era Begins

Under Bezos’s ownership, the Post would invest heavily in digital infrastructure and expand its staff. However, fundamental questions would persist about editorial independence when covering:

• Amazon’s labor practices and union organizing efforts
• Tax policy affecting billionaires and corporations
• Technology regulation and antitrust enforcement
• Government contracting and cloud computing security
• Local economic development issues (as demonstrated in Seattle’s head tax battle)

The purchase represented a form of defensive media acquisition: control over a major democratic institution by an individual whose business empire increasingly required favorable government treatment and public perception management. Democracy dies in darkness, as the Post would later proclaim—but media capture by billionaires ensures that not all forms of power receive equal scrutiny.