'Hey, Woodstein!'

The Washington Post was sold last week; to Jeff Bezos, (he's the CEO of Amazon), from the Graham family, one of the very last family-run newspapers in America.

The Post of course broke Watergate. Woodward and Bernstein. Way back in 1972.

One of my lasting memories of the 70's is "All The President's Men." I was a political junkie and the movie was just perfect. Always loved Robert Redford and he just flat out nailed Bob Woodward. Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein was brilliant. And Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee was too good to be true.

Newspapers are a dying breed. That's unfortunate. Then again, from all in the know, Jeff Bezos wants to maintain the integrity of the Post and its still great legacy status not just in Washington, but beyond. I hope that's the case.

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The State of the SF Chronicle; Still Losing Wads of Money; Newspapers in the News; WashPost Latest Sold

Newspapers, unfortunately, continue to be a dying breed. Did you see what the NY Times sold the Boston Globe for? To think the Times paid a little over a billion dollars for the paper just two decades ago is indicative of the state of the industry.

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, just paid $250M, (in cash), for the heralded Washington Post.

It's no secret here in the Bay Area that the Chronicle has been losing money for many years. Lots of money, like a million dollars a week at one point. It helps that the Chronicle is owned by a mega-media company like Hearst Corp. but at what point does the endless amount of red ink cause surrender?

The Chronicle installed a paywall recently; it has no doubt raised much-need revenue for the newspaper, but its website, SFGate, (the free portion), still gets the bulk of usage and is in the Top 10 of most-frequently viewed newspaper web sites in the country. Even with its digital traction and newfound Internet subscribers, the Chronicle still loses wads of money.

Even with all its murky financial status, I have never heard that Hearst is actively trying to sell the Chron. For one, Hearst knows the paper and its website still command considerable cultural weight in the Bay Area. They also know that although the San Jose Mercury News and its sister publications recently freshened up its online content, the Merc, deep in the heart of Silicon Valley, still doesn't have the cachet of Hearst's Chronicle.

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Veteran DC Columnist Sally Quinn on the KSCO/KOMY Radio Show

Legendary political columnist, Sally Quinn, of the Washington Post, will be my guest on KSCO/KOMY at 1 PM PT. You can click on the streaming audio link to listen.

We'll discuss George W. Bush, (his library was dedicated on Thursday), and his legacy and other Washington politics.

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