By David Folkenflik

Audie Cornish （Host）： The sale of The Washington Post to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos struck NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik as a bit surprising. Given the tough times in the newspaper business， David sought to figure out why smart people with no apparent ties to journalism would want to buy these things anyway.

David Folkenflik： Donald Graham is the chairman of The Washington Post Company， the son and grandson of its leaders for the past 80 years. And along with his 1）niece， the publisher Katharine Weymouth， Graham had to admit the family simply didnt have the answers to questions about the papers future.

Donald Graham： Katharine and I started to look at the numbers， realized that this year， 2013， would be the seventh 2）straight year of significant declining revenues.

Folkenflik： Graham spoke in a video posted on The Posts website.

Graham： We knew we could keep The Post alive. We knew it could survive. But our aspirations for The Post have always been higher up than that. So we went to see if we could find a buyer.

Folkenflik： Or， one might think， a 3）sucker. Jeff Bezos just paid $250，000，000 for an unprofitable newspaper that doesnt look likely to reverse its fortunes anytime soon. Why would a smart business leader do that？ I turned for answers to Brian Tierney， the public relations executive who led a 4）consortium to take over The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. He became publisher and said he was moved， as he saw the effects of his reporters work exposing local corruption， injustice and crime.

Brian Tierney： And I thought： Thank you， God， for putting me here at this point in my career. Because， I mean， I loved being part of helping Verizon sell， you know， phone service， and Im proud of the work we did for the Pennsylvania Lottery. But this， you felt like this is the peoples work.

Folkenflik： Those 5）beleaguered Philadelphia papers have since changed hands twice. But whatever the economics， owning a major newspaper buys you a seat at the national table. Mort Zuckerman， once solely a successful real estate investor， became a familiar face on national TV public affairs shows only after he became the owner of the New York Daily News and other publications.

Cathy Merrill Williams： Well， look， theres always been 6）egos that have bought newspapers. If you go back to the 1930s， you had people like Dorothy Schiff that came from a big banking family that bought the New York Post. So theres always been an ego play.

Folkenflik： Cathy Merrill Williams is publisher of Washingtonian magazine. She has ink in her veins. When she was 5， she first started the presses at the Annapolis Capital newspaper owned by her family. After the death of her father in 2006， the Merrills sold their newspapers to a small media company.

Williams： The big difference now is there is a play of people with money who want to see if they can reinvent an industry. Its more fun， its more exciting， its more challenging， and theyre looking at it as an opportunity to remake the future of journalism and media.

Folkenflik： The media analyst and consultant Ken Doctor says Bezos， wholl own The Post personally， is unlikely to use his new property to 7）goose the profits of Amazon.

Ken Doctor： The 8）payoff is clearly not financial. He doesnt need more money. The payoff is doing something that other people havent done. He sees technology as a great positive 9）disrupter in human life. And he believes thats what hes done with Amazon. He believes that it could be done for news.

Folkenflik： Doctor， who recently consulted for The Post on 10）instituting a digital pay wall， says newspapers would do well to embrace Amazons specialty of serving and satisfying customers quickly and effectively. But Doctor says that other than offering assurances of editorial integrity， Bezos has not signaled how he expects to lead The Post.

Doctor： Were going back to the future. Question is， are we getting the right billionaires？ And we dont know that answer yet.

Folkenflik： Bezos has asked Katharine Weymouth to continue on as publisher. She is said to be sad at the loss of The Post but relieved to be heading into an era when she can invest in the paper rather than continue cutting costs year after year.

奧迪·科尼什（主持人）：亞馬遜創(chuàng)始人杰夫·貝索斯收購(gòu)了《華盛頓郵報(bào)》，（這一消息）讓NPR媒體記者戴維·福肯弗利克為之震驚?？紤]到報(bào)紙行業(yè)的艱難時(shí)世，戴維試圖弄明白那些跟新聞業(yè)沒(méi)有明顯關(guān)系的精明企業(yè)家究竟為什么想要收購(gòu)這些企業(yè)。

戴維·福肯弗利克：唐納德·格雷厄姆是華盛頓郵報(bào)公司的董事長(zhǎng)，也是過(guò)去80年里該企業(yè)幾代掌門人的兒子和孫子。他和他的侄女、報(bào)紙發(fā)行人凱瑟琳·韋莫斯一起，不得不承認(rèn)家族并沒(méi)有關(guān)于報(bào)紙未來(lái)發(fā)展問(wèn)題的答案。

唐納德·格雷厄姆：我和凱瑟琳開(kāi)始看報(bào)表，意識(shí)到2013年將是年收入連續(xù)明顯下降的第七年。

福肯弗利克：格雷厄姆在郵報(bào)網(wǎng)站發(fā)布的視頻聲明里如是說(shuō)。

格雷厄姆：我們知道我們能讓《華盛頓郵報(bào)》存活，我們知道它能生存下去。但是我們對(duì)《郵報(bào)》的期望向來(lái)比那樣更高，所以我們?nèi)タ纯茨懿荒苷业劫I家。

?？细ダ耍夯蛘?，有人會(huì)認(rèn)為，是找個(gè)易受騙的傻子。杰夫·貝索斯剛以2.5億美元收購(gòu)了這家不盈利的報(bào)紙，這家報(bào)紙看來(lái)不會(huì)在短期內(nèi)扭轉(zhuǎn)它的命運(yùn)。為什么一個(gè)聰明的企業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人要這樣做？我向布萊恩·蒂爾尼尋求答案，他是公共關(guān)系執(zhí)行官，曾聯(lián)合一個(gè)財(cái)團(tuán)收購(gòu)了《費(fèi)城問(wèn)詢報(bào)》和《費(fèi)城每日新聞》。他成為了報(bào)紙發(fā)行人，他說(shuō)自己深受感動(dòng)，因?yàn)樗吹阶约旱挠浾咴谂懂?dāng)?shù)馗瘮?、不公平和犯罪事?shí)所產(chǎn)生的影響。

布萊恩·蒂爾尼：我在心里說(shuō)：感謝上帝，把我放在職業(yè)生涯中的這個(gè)位置。我的意思是，我樂(lè)意成為威瑞森電信電話服務(wù)銷售的一員，我也以我們?yōu)橘e夕法尼亞州彩票所做的工作為傲。然而，你會(huì)覺(jué)得經(jīng)營(yíng)報(bào)紙才是真正為人民服務(wù)的工作。

?？细ダ耍耗切╋柺芾_的費(fèi)城報(bào)紙已經(jīng)兩次轉(zhuǎn)手，無(wú)論經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況如何，擁有一家大型報(bào)紙讓你在國(guó)家占有一席之位。莫特·祖克曼曾經(jīng)只是一名成功的房地產(chǎn)投資商，他成為《紐約每日新聞》和其他出版物的所有人后才成為國(guó)家電視公共事務(wù)節(jié)目的?？汀?/p>

凱茜·梅里爾·威廉斯：是的，你看，收購(gòu)報(bào)紙行業(yè)向來(lái)是一種滿足自我的行為。回顧20世紀(jì)30年代，來(lái)自大銀行家族的多蘿西·希夫收購(gòu)了《紐約郵報(bào)》。所以那始終是一種滿足自我的游戲。

?？细ダ耍簞P茜·梅里爾·威廉斯是《華盛頓人》雜志的發(fā)行人，報(bào)紙是她的家族生意。五歲的時(shí)候，她就開(kāi)始接觸在首府安納波利斯由她家族經(jīng)營(yíng)的報(bào)紙。2006年她父親去世后，梅里爾家族把他們的報(bào)紙企業(yè)賣給了一家小媒體公司。

威廉斯：現(xiàn)在最大的不同是這是有錢人的一種游戲，想看看他們是否能讓一個(gè)企業(yè)起死回生。那樣更好玩、更令人興奮、更有挑戰(zhàn)性，他們把收購(gòu)的行為看作是再造新聞業(yè)和媒體業(yè)未來(lái)的機(jī)會(huì)。

?？细ダ耍好襟w分析師和顧問(wèn)肯·多科特說(shuō)到，貝索斯是以個(gè)人名義擁有《華盛頓郵報(bào)》，不太可能用他的新資產(chǎn)來(lái)提高亞馬遜的利潤(rùn)。

肯·多科特：這次的收購(gòu)很明顯并不是為了商業(yè)目的。他不需要更多的錢，這次收購(gòu)是在做其他人沒(méi)做過(guò)的事情。他把科技看作是改善人類生活的巨大作用者。他相信他就是這樣經(jīng)營(yíng)亞馬遜的，也相信同樣的做法照樣適用于新聞業(yè)。

福肯弗利克：多科特最近為《華盛頓郵報(bào)》提議制定一個(gè)數(shù)字付費(fèi)墻，他說(shuō)報(bào)紙會(huì)很好地接受亞馬遜快速并有效地服務(wù)和滿足顧客的專業(yè)性，但多科特還說(shuō)除了保證編輯誠(chéng)信，貝索斯仍沒(méi)有表示他將如何領(lǐng)導(dǎo)《郵報(bào)》。多科特：我們準(zhǔn)備回到未來(lái)，然而問(wèn)題是，這些億萬(wàn)富翁們就是我們需要的正確人選嗎？我們?nèi)匀灰媚恳源?/p>

?？细ダ耍贺愃魉寡?qǐng)凱瑟琳·韋莫斯繼續(xù)當(dāng)發(fā)行人。聽(tīng)說(shuō)她在失去《郵報(bào)》的時(shí)候很傷心，但也安心地準(zhǔn)備邁進(jìn)新時(shí)代，這樣她可以在報(bào)紙上投資，而不是年復(fù)一年地不斷削減成本。