With a $250 million price tag, Washington Post Co. Chairman Donald Graham announced on Monday that his family has agreed to sell its newspaper to Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.
The Graham family bought The Washington Post in 1933.
“Every member of my family started out with the same emotion — shock — in even thinking about [selling],” Graham said. “But when the idea of a transaction with Jeff Bezos came up, it altered my feelings.”
The Post has recently struggled to maintain its print circulation, and has watched its profits go down. It’s daily circulation fell 8.3 percent during the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013. The Post currently has a daily circulation of 473,000 copies, making it the seventh largest newspaper in America.
In a statement, Graham said he made the decision to sell only after familiar newspaper challenges made his family wonder if there might be another owner better for the Post. Bezos’ “proven technology and business genius, his long-term approach and his personal decency,” Graham added, “make him a uniquely good new owner for the Post.”
In a statement to the Post staff, Bezos said the newspapers would not change its values under new ownership.
