At PJ Media, journalist Mark Tapscott asks, can Amazon owner Jeff Bezos save his paper, the Washington Post? Shortly before the U.S. election on Tuesday, Bezos had angered staff by refusing to endorse a candidate. He argued that such endorsements are part of a pattern that leads to a loss of trust — and declining fortunes — in media.

But are there not deeper issues?

Tapscott thinks so:

The Post newsroom is full of highly educated men and women who call themselves “journalists” but who in fact function, knowingly or unknowingly, as broadcasters of the approved narrative about American politics and policies. When they are prevented from broadcasting that approved narrative as they wish, they throw temper tantrums, pick up their toys, and resign in protest.

Whose “approved narrative,” you may ask? Bezos nailed it when he explained a few days later that “the Washington Post and the New York Times win prizes, but increasingly we talk only to a certain elite. More and more, we talk to ourselves. (It wasn’t always this way — in the 1990s we achieved 80 percent household penetration in the D.C. metro area.)”

“Will Jeff Bezos Save the Washington Post the Way Elon Musk Rescued X?,” October 31, 2024

When we are talking to ourselves — and we are the only audience — we do have, by definition, a communications problem…

Tapscott suggests that Elon Musk’s approach with revitalizing X might work for the Post. But it comes at a price:

As Elon Musk quickly discovered when he took over Twitter, introducing the internal ranks of decision-makers and performers to the harsh reality of the consequences of their approach is only the first and easiest step…

Musk bought a social media giant with more than 8,000 employees in 2022. Today, X has about 1,500 employees. Many of those who are no longer there left of their own accord; others did not.

The Post’s biggest union represents about 1,000 reporters, editors, researchers, and others. “The Way Elon Musk Rescued X?”

Layoffs are indeed a harsh truth but they coincide with the reality that the internet has crashed the costs of newsgathering and dissemination. The independent content creators at Substack, for example, don’t need legacy media perches to make a living if they are good enough. If they aren’t, the costs are borne by themselves, not the public.

In short, perhaps Bezos can save the Post but it will be a very different Post from Katharine Graham’s iconic paper of the 1970s.