When the New York Times’ staff decided to walk out for 24 hours last December, I got it. Unlike many a media company, the Times is wealthy and increasingly profitable. In the third quarter of 2022, the most recent period at the Times that we have data for, its operating profit rose 9.3% to $51.0 million while its revenue ticked 7.6% higher to $547.7 million. Not bad.
all i want from billionaire owners is transparency - ask them to put things like WaPo on a 2x2 of "hands-on, hands-off" and "run it like a business, run it like a hobby"
If Bezos wants to run it like a business, then i guess it really doesn't matter whether he could fund it 100x or not. These cuts might be short-sighted (to both his personal brand and stated societal goals) but relying on billionaires to fund news orgs out of pocket seems less than optimal too.
all i want from billionaire owners is transparency - ask them to put things like WaPo on a 2x2 of "hands-on, hands-off" and "run it like a business, run it like a hobby"
If Bezos wants to run it like a business, then i guess it really doesn't matter whether he could fund it 100x or not. These cuts might be short-sighted (to both his personal brand and stated societal goals) but relying on billionaires to fund news orgs out of pocket seems less than optimal too.