What does Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos bring to The Washington Post, which he just agreed to buy for $250 million?
Here's how the Post's executive editor, Martin Baron, answered that question Tuesday on Here & Now:
"He's an extraordinary business man, a great entrepreneur and innovator — someone who has disrupted other businesses. We're a business that has been disrupted. I think it'll be nice to have somebody who knows how to disrupt other people and other businesses."
Baron also said Bezos is "a risk taker, he's a long term thinker, and that's a big plus for us."
As for the reaction to the sale in his newsroom, Baron said:
"There's a certain wistfulness for the Graham [family] era, and certainly a lot of admiration for the family stewardship of the paper over the last 80 years. But also, there's a lot of anticipation and I think excitement about the possibilities that this opens up. You know, if we're going to get a new owner, I think a lot of people think there couldn't be a better one."
Also on the show, news industry analyst Ken Doctor from the Newsonomics website said that Bezos and a few others with lots of money to spend have apparently decided that when it comes to newspapers " 'we think [the prices are] close to the bottom. We're going to buy close to the bottom and we'll reap a financial benefit, but it might take 3 to 5 years.' "
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