Mediagazer: Meet The Mysterious Duo Who Just Bought Newsweek (Jeff Bercovici/Forbes)

7:15 AM ET, August 6, 2013

Top News:

Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos — The Washington Post Co. has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos, ending the Graham family's stewardship of one of America's leading news organizations after four generations.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Washington Post, PandoDaily, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Buttry Diary, Variety, The Huffington Post, New Republic, Wonkblog, Media Week, Businessweek, BuzzMachine, NetNewsCheck Latest, INMA, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Journalism.co.uk, USA Today, Gawker, Fortune, Columbia Journalism Review, The Washington Post Company, Bloomberg, JIMROMENESKO.COM, AllThingsD, @davidfrum, bizjournals, TIME, Forbes, New Yorker, @geneweingarten, Guardian, Bookseller news, @moorehn, Hit & Run, Deadline.com, @corybe, The Week, @eddyelfenbein, The Verge, @stephcliff, Quartz, CNET, @jimbradysp, @learmonth, @dangillmor, Brave New World, @vivianschiller, @page88, @clarajeffery, @jbflint, @derekwillis, @macloo, @dankennedy_nu, @jeffjarvis, MinOnline, @nickbilton, @chanders, @sts10, @sts10, @chanders, Wall Street Journal, @leenarao, @pkafka, @davidfolkenflik, @mikiebarb, The New Yorker Blog, Poynter, GigaOM, LA Observed, Slate, New York Magazine, Wonkblog, Gannett Blog, Top Digital Journal News, VatorNews, DealBook, Wired, Business Insider, ReadWrite, FishbowlNY, FishbowlDC, The Atlantic Online, Betabeat, The Wrap, AdAge, ZDNet, The Next Web, Mediaite, VentureBeat, Politico, Media & Entertainment, SocialTimes, Slate, TechCrunch, Broadcasting & Cable, The Huffington Post, One Man and His Blog, paidContent, Fast Company, Digits, AppNewser, The New York Observer, The Verge, The Dish, Reuters, Electronista, Vanity Fair, GalleyCat, Engadget and Hillicon Valley

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:

Why the Sale of the Washington Post Seems So Significant — A moment that will define an era's upheaval in journalism. — In the photo above we see Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee walking out of the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington after their historic win in the legal battle over publishing the Pentagon Papers.

Discussion: The Wrap, m.cjr.org, WWD Media Headlines, BuzzFeed, Reinventing the Newsroom, @jamesfallows, BtoB Magazine, @petersgoodman, Crikey, @sophblack, @pkafka, Speakeasy, Forbes, @jaredbkeller, @bobstep, AdAge, FishbowlDC, @sdkstl, @kvox, GigaOM, @dkthomp and @dangillmor

David Carr / New York Times:

The Washington Post Reaches the End of the Graham Era — In late 2012, Donald E. Graham, the chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Company, met with the paper's publisher, Katharine Weymouth, to look at the paper's future for the next three years. Their assessment troubled them.

Discussion: @anupkaphle, @curtisbeast, @1bobcohn and @brianstelter

Jack Shafer:

Jeff Bezos is an owner who knows how to deliver — As the American newspaper business began its red-ink slide in the late 2000s, I fully expected a billionaire to rescue the financially struggling Washington Post. But I never thought its savior would be Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who purchased the paper today for $250 million.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, Forbes, Washington Post, Digits, Quartz, CNET, Bloomberg, New Republic, Memex 1.1 and Business Insider

John F. Harris / Politico:

What is Jeff Bezos thinking? — Within minutes of the news going public, I had an email from a recognizable byline at the Washington Post that captured my feelings exactly: “Holy. S**t.” — In the heyday of this singular American institution, those two words were the very phrase …

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @hale_a, @pkafka, @mlsif, @bensherwoodabc, @politico, @jaycosttws, Gawker, @politico, Business Insider and Reuters

Emily Bell / Guardian:

Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post: a marriage of old media and new money — The Amazon billionaire's buy marks a fascinating transition as east coast influence passes to Silicon Valley entrepreneurialism — The sale of the Washington Post to Amazon founder and multibillionaire Jeff Bezos for $250m …

Discussion: Washington Post, metamedia, New Republic, TechCrunch, @paullewis, @matthewwells, @moorehn, @emilybell, @ceciliamarie, @rosental, @hofrench, @anneapplebaum, @benjaminjackson, @digiphile, LA Biz Observed and Quartz

Washington Post:

The Grahams: A family synonymous with The Post and with Washington — It began with a bankruptcy sale in 1933, when a Republican businessman and presidential confidant reinvented himself as a newspaper publisher in the nation's capital. It ended with an announcement that his descendants …

Discussion: Poynter, @themarkberman, @ceciliakang, Forbes and The Wrap

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

Here's Why I Think Jeff Bezos Bought The Washington Post — Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider, so in the wake of news that he's buying the Washington Post, folks have been asking me two questions: — What's it like being owned or invested in by Jeff Bezos?

Discussion: New Republic, Wonkblog, The Week, The Switch, @sree, Forbes and Slate

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Post Mortem: Don Graham's History Of Missed Chances

Discussion: Reuters, The Wrap and The Huffington Post

Alex Ben Block / Hollywood Reporter:

Time Warner Cable: We'll End Blackout If We Can Offer CBS A La Carte — In a letter, TWC CEO Glenn Britt asks to resume negotiations immediately, and wants the network to stop blocking CBS.com content from its broadband customers. — Time Warner Cable's CEO Glenn Britt on Monday sent …

Discussion: Deadline.com, Bloomberg, @samgustin, @edmundlee, @sherman4949, @peterlauria3, @wjcarter, The Wrap and Wall Street Journal

Bloomberg:
Time Warner's blackout of CBS enters third day

Discussion: GigaOM, Forbes, The Wrap, Variety, CNET, Radio & Television …, Broadcasting & Cable, Hillicon Valley, AdAge and New York Times

Om Malik / GigaOM:

The short story of Longreads, according to founder Mark Armstrong — Mark Armstrong, like many people in New York City, was a commuter — he commuted to Time Inc.'s midtown Manhattan offices from Cobble HIll, Brooklyn, and it was the tedium of the commute that led him to seek ways to keep himself busy when he was without Wi-Fi.

David Taintor / Adweek:

Quartz Lets Readers Comment on Specific Paragraphs — Quartz is taking reader comments to the margins. — Atlantic Media's 10-month-old business publication on Tuesday introduced a new feature that lets readers weigh in on—and publish comments right next to—individual paragraphs within articles rather …

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Digital usage overtaking all legacy media — Americans this year are likely to spend as many hours consuming content on digital devices as the combined amount of time that they devote to gazing at TV and paging through print, according to eMarketer, a research-aggregation service.

Discussion: @carlzimmer