Bezos + Washington Post = ?

Well now this is interesting. 

Jeff Bezos recently acquired the majority of Washington Post, making the former Amazon.com wunderkid the helmsman at this physical media. This has been the grounds for a lot of questions and controversy - what is Bezos REALLY doing? What has he seen in this old, by many doomed, media that we have missed?

Now, Bezos has always had a affection for the printed media, so it is possible that there is a bit of heart in this purchase, however, I think he can do much with this. One should not forget a couple of important details in this: Bezos in an expert on the printed medium, he knows every aspect of push, he owns supply, and he rules advertising. It is possible that he found an opening in these areas not previously thought of .

Bezos also said on the purchase :

" We've had three big ideas at Amazon that 've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient."

I think if he sticks to these, he will take the Post far; especially if he holds true to the the last. It has been shown quite clearly (going back to Kevin Costner dilemma) that just building a solution on the new "in time" technology, will not get newspapers on the market again.When Swedish newspaper "Svenska Dagbladet" (SvD) saw sales declining they quickly responded by creating and pushing out iPhone and iPad apps, but offered little to nothing new with them. 

The app also requiring a customer subscription number to log in, another step halting the user from getting excited and engaged in the app. Consequently, it was withdrawn after less than a year, the reason for this in my opinion is that you just copied the magazines articles straight into the app. A subscriber, already reading the paper in its physical form mind you, was left wondering what the hell he/she needed the app for? Sales generated from the app was pitiful (mostly because people on the Internet do not expect to pay for news) and everything just collapsed. SvD is in this point NOT good at relating to its customers, something that ultimately will bring them down.

What should be added to this now is that we are also seeing a new trend in users on social media in 2013. Suddenly 50+ people are acquiring and actively using social media, and all of the Internet in general. The mistrust among that generation has passed, and suddenly 50+'ers feel safe engaging on and with the Internet. These individuals also - in general - have more time and money than the average person, making them a very attractive group of customers.

Now if Bezos manages to create a new Washington Post app that takes over new customers, and in addition manages to reduce the cost of pushing unsold newspapers, he can quite possibly have found a very profitable business. It is unclear whether this is his intentions, but I think if there is anyone who can turn on the newspaper market back on its feet, it would be Jeff Bezos.