Bezos could have saved the Washington Post’s local news and sports reporters

The biggest tech story dominating Washington right now is, incidentally, a media story. Last week, shortly after The Washington Post laid off 400 staffers and closed many of its desks, and before its absentee CEO Will Lewis got summarily shoved out, I wrote a column trying to figure out whether there was even a cynical, self-interested reason that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos continued to own the Post: Was it to support journalism, make money, or suck up to Donald Trump?

This weekend I learned of a discussion that would have both saved the Post money and supported several journalists, but never went through: After it was reported in late January that the Post was eyeing the elimination of the sports desk, the Washington City Paper, a renowned newspaper with deep roots in DC, had offered to purchase both the Post’s sports and local sections, thereby keeping those journalists employed.