Amazon’s Jeffrey Bezos to buy Washington Post

The Washington Post, an American daily newspaper, has announced its sale to Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey P Bezos. Bezos has agreed to buy the newspaper assets of the Washington Post Company for $ 250 million. The decision to sell the assets was made following the decline in revenue and fall in the circulation of its copies.
The Washington Post has been owned by the Graham family for 80 years. Currently, Donald E. Graham is the Chairman and Chief Executive of Washington Post.
In another major deal, the Boston Globe, one of the most renowned newspapers in US was sold by New York Times Company to John Henry, the American billionaire owner of Liverpool Football Club for $70 million. Globe was launched in 1993 and broke the records of highest price ever paid to the American newspaper. Fall of the newspaper’s circulation to nearly half over a decade is one of the reasons behind the sale.

Why there is decline in the circulation of newspapers in USA?

The print based newspaper is facing stiff competition from the internet based sources of news. People are switching from the conventional medium to internet and other modern mediums.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2013