Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Buys WaPo

Jeff Bezos

(Washington, D.C.) The founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, 49, is buying the Washington Post Co.

Bezos, whose entrepreneurship has made him one of the world's richest men, will pay $250 million in cash for The Post and affiliated publications to the Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses.

Seattle-based Amazon will have no role in the purchase; Bezos himself will buy the news organization and become its sole owner when the sale is completed, probably within 60 days. The Post Co. will change to a new, still-undecided name and continue as a publicly traded company without The Post thereafter.

I've got a suggestion for the new name ---the Washington News, or maybe The Washington Messenger. Of course, given the gradual disappearance of printed publications, maybe the company should look forward and call the itself simply Washington Media.

In any event, it's noteworthy that the Boston Globe was sold for $70 million in the same week the Washington Post garnered $250 million. The disparity in sale prices hasn't been explained.