Jeff Bezos’ Letter to Washington Post Employees ⇥ washingtonpost.com

Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million:

The values of The Post do not need changing. The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners. We will continue to follow the truth wherever it leads, and we’ll work hard not to make mistakes. When we do, we will own up to them quickly and completely. […]

There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about – government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports – and working backwards from there. I’m excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention.

MG Siegler has some thoughts on why Bezos is the perfect new owner of a newspaper:

That’s great news for The Post though. If anyone is willing pump money into a company as profits dive, it’s Jeff Bezos.

And I mean that in a good, only mildly snarky way. Bezos is a genius. His razor-thin profit management with Amazon is brilliant.

Interesting perspective. Both the New York Times and the Boston Globe have been praised for their online efforts, but neither one has a Bezos at the helm. This is a truly exciting prospect for the Post.