During this Next Level Success RoundTable [Blast From the Past] episode, we (Charles T. Harper, Wade Harman, and Deborah Anderson) chatted about Jeff Bezos' acquisition of the Washington Post.
Chapters
Episode Resources
Visit us at nextlevelsuccess.co
Contact Deborah via Twitter @SocialWebCafe
Copyright 2013-2024 Social Web Cafe (Seaside Records, part of Michael T. Anderson dba Anderson Creations)
00:00 - Intro
00:43 - Jeff Bezos Acquires Washington Post
02:34 - Jeff Bezos' Net Worth
03:51 - What is the Impact or Draw...?
05:45 - What Does the Future Hold (Politics)?
This podcast was the brainchild of Deborah, my lovely wife,
back in 2013, and it was originally recorded via Google Hangouts back when
she was affectionately referred to as the industry as the hangout queen.
Frequent guests during our first season included Charles T.
Harper.
Of Gain mind share.
He is also the co-host of Marketing Momentum with Charles and Deborah.
Next level Success was produced by Seaside Records.
Why would somebody with, with that much money to
spend by the Washington Post?
That's just a question.
I, I mean, if I, if I was, you know, going to, if I had that much money to spend
and I was gonna spend it on something, I personally wouldn't buy a newspaper.
. Charles T. Harper: Yeah.
I, I mean, you know, everybody's kind of given
Newspapers, the death sentence, obviously.
Um, they, they, they've obviously got an online presence, but, you know,
they still got to me, they've got these, they seem like their, their
assets gotta be the journalists, right?
So, I mean, the brand doesn't mean anything, I don't think
as much as it does anymore.
And maybe if it does.
I think all that went out the window, you know when, when he bought it.
But they've still got these, these really incredibly talented
long time journalists that can go out and put something together.
Now, I guess the question to me is whether or not they're gonna
be able to put something together.
And people really wanna read, you know, in other venues, other than the
ones they've been, they've been doing
well.
I see a quote here, uh, from the LA Times on this story, and, and it says, uh,
for too long we've had the technologists sitting in one room and the journalists
were sitting in the other room, and each one sees the other as the bad guy.
And they're, they're saying that we need to get both of these groups in
the same room and working together.
So with what you're saying about, um.
You know, people will call him the newspaper, a dying arc.
Maybe.
Maybe he's trying to fix it to where technology and journalism
can, can work hand in hand,
. Deborah E: But, you know, 250 million, how much is this gentleman worth?
Because maybe 250 million is just a spit in the bucket and it's,
it's a hobby and it's a dream that maybe he had all his life.
I, I, I think that if he was gonna spend that much money,
he probably has more to spare.
Jeff Bezos net worth is $25.2 billion.
He's number 19.
Oh, then 250 million that just Yeah, it's just jumped me.
, Charles T. Harper: obviously the, the, the Washington Post.
. Is international, and part of what I'm hoping that he's seeing is the
opportunity that I sort of intuitively think is there, even in a small town
like Harrisburg, that there's something going on on the local level that
There's gotta be revenue there that is too small for a paper
like the Washington Post.
Too small for these, these, these, uh, operations where they've got
all these people, they gotta pay buildings they gotta pay for, right?
But, but enough.
For somebody who's got a studio in their basement who can cover a niche, maybe
that revenue and that opportunity is still there for somebody who's willing to kind
of take the whole blogging model or, you know, in your case, Debra, the, the, the
show model and then kind of target it.
They're in, you know, their local area.
I mean, I know there's,
do you think that being who he is, do you think that will
draw more advertisers and drama?
Because they'll look at it and say, wow, look what he did with this.
Oh, yeah.
Book store.
They're just gonna like, Hey, I wanna be a part of this.
Whatever it is, we don't know, but we wanna be a part
of it because of who he is.
Oh, most definitely.
I, I think so.
What do you think Charles?
Charles T. Harper: Well, I think, I think it's almost got to that the name's gonna,
the name's gonna draw, but then he's also got, I mean, he's got this huge.
Distribution network through Amazon, right?
Yeah.
So even if he decided to, to, to, to take, even if he decided
to deliver the newspaper, right?
Even if he decided to keep the print copy and deliver that print
newspaper, goodness gracious, um, he could probably deliver that paper.
To people who want it in these other cities, right?
Um, through that whole distribution network that they have going on
somehow or another, um, through Amazon.
But then also, um, I gotta believe they gotta be able to raise the
level of that product to whatever it is that they were putting out.
It might've been cool for the people in Washington, but I got.
I believe they gotta do something to the actual product because I, I don't,
I don't read the Washington Post.
And I guess if you're not really into politics, maybe, or you're not from
Washington, you're not reading it.
I, I, I don't know.
Do do you guys read the Washington Post
I don't.
I read the LA Times . If anything it's la Do you think they're
going for almost a global, I mean, if you, I'm, I'm trying to think global here.
If you're looking at the country.
Even though New York, Los Angeles, you know, different cities like that
may be major cities, aren't you gonna kind of look at that Washington area
to be representative of the country of the United States as far as news?
So is it possible, it's looking at a, a global type thing where maybe people
would want it electronically delivered?
Other countries.
That's a good point.
Um, that, and is this guy, is he planning on running for some
type of office with doing this?
Mm,
there's all kinds of different scenarios you can run,
uh, with, because like you said, the Washington Post is, you know, United
States, uh, what do you call it, the.
Referral, whatever you wanna call
That brings us to the end of this episode of
Next Level Success Round Table.
We appreciate and value your insights and hope to apply them in our own lives,
both personally and professionally.
As always, thanks for listening to Next Level Success Roundtable, where your
thoughts and contributions are shared around the table and around the world.