Neither Charity nor Museum, Reality Comes to the WaPost

The Washington Post announced a massive restructuring on Wednesday. Entire sections of the paper were eliminated or significantly downsized. Book reviews, foreign bureaus, the entire sports section - gone.

The reaction was typical and expected. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon entrepreneur who bought the paper in 2013, is rich! He can afford the losses! He has a civic duty to lose money!

Uh, no.

Newspapers are not charities. They do not exist as living museums. Nor should they try to be your therapist, reflecting your political views just to assure you that you really are a good person and we like you.

For the majority of his ownership, Bezos was a hands-off owner. He really did buy the paper with altruistic intent. He let the inmates run the asylum, and they ran it into the ground. That's what's so laughable about the Bezos Bashers in the last 24 hours complaining that he never shared a "vision" with the staffers. The one time he did, opining that the Post shouldn't endorse anyone in the late presidential election and that the editorial page should lean into free markets and individual liberty, he had a full-scale revolt on his hands. Post staffers protested and many resigned. While not openly endorsing it, they were heartened that a quarter million readers canceled their subscriptions. In light of yesterday's announcement, that looks like a bit of an own goal.

Some of the loudest caterwauling surrounded the Amazon Prime/MGM documentary, Melania. An obvious sign of corruption! Bezos spent $75M all to suck up to Donald Trump! Duh. Liberals created a world where the government has the final say in so many business decisions. Of course, it's corruption. That's what happens when Big Gov meets Big Biz. And the Trump Administration openly embraces it. They're unabashed shakedown artists, and they don't even try to hide it. Bezos is a realist. What's $75M when tens of billions of government contracts are at stake?

The bottom line in this story is truly the bottom line. Newspapers are no longer profitable.

Take the sports section: Every major college and professional contest is televised. For the few that can't watch live, highlights are clipped and made available instantly on social media. Postgame shows offer an obligatory dumb answers to dumb questions routine that marks every locker room scrum. ("Hey, were you thinking of your dead father when you crossed home plate on that dinger?" "First, I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ...") No amount of nostalgia for Shirley Povich, Thomas Boswell or Sally Jenkins is going to change the dynamics of the market.

The only people I feel sorry for are the high school kids. Because of the reductive nature of sports, for many, their games are the only opportunity they will ever get to shine and have their athletic feats lauded in the media. It could be that there's a business plan for that, but summer nights are left for sandlots.

For the first 50 years of Major League Baseball, play-by-play was offered by Western Union. And then came radio. With broadcasting the concept of rights fees was born. The newly founded Commissioner's Office sued, and Western Union stopped routine coverage in 1924. Nobody wept for the telegraph operators who lost their jobs.

And very few are going to weep today.