
Laurene Powell Jobs’s Organization to Take Majority Stake in The Atlantic - zonotope
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/business/media/atlantic-media-emerson-collective-majority-stake.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=7&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F07%2F28%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia%2Fatlantic-media-emerson-collective-majority-stake.html
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BooneJS
I'm curious if Bezos and Powell Jobs got into media as an investment or as
philanthropy? With the current state of the industry I'd believe the latter
before the former.

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rfrank
Activism. I'm curious why downvoters think their acquisitions aren't a form of
activism. For instance, their coverage of an Amazon monopoly is very sparse,
even given the recent Democratic economic policy statements which mention
monopolies frequently. Billionaires wanting to control the press isn't exactly
a shocking idea. Is buying a newspaper and controlling their output more or
less offensive than Theil's funding the Gawker suit?

1\. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/11/11/at-
th...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/11/11/at-this-point-
amazon-really-might-as-well-just-buy-the-postal-service/)

2\. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-
conspiracy/wp/201...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-
conspiracy/wp/2014/10/15/stop-amazon-really/)

3\. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/amazon-isnt-
technica...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/amazon-isnt-technically-
dominant-but-it-pervades-our-
lives/2017/07/19/977df402-6cb2-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html)

4\.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/01/30/amazo...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/01/30/amazon-
wants-to-send-stuff-before-you-order-it-are-other-retailers-doomed/)

5\. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/is-amazon-getting-
to...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/is-amazon-getting-too-
big/2017/07/28/ff38b9ca-722e-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html)

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pvg
How do any of these links demonstrate that Bezos is controlling the Washington
Post's output?

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rfrank
To me, saying "Bezos doesn't influence Wapo's output" is like saying, "Oculus
will remain an independent entity inside Facebook." Not something I'm inclined
to believe. Why should one believe that the billionaire (and new richest man
in the world) at the helm of a major monopoly isn't influencing WaPo's
content?

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pvg
"I don't believe it" is not very convincing evidence. Oculus and the Post are
not really comparable, nobody (statistically) cares how independent Oculus is.
Even if you want to look at this from a purely business perspective -
editorial independence is part of the product. It's also what ensures you can
attract real journalists.

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dilemma
An organization is not independent of its owner. This is a tautology.

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pg314
He was talking about _editorial_ independence.

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dilemma
Whoosh.

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blueyes
A much better media investment than OZY. Glad to see tech money stepping up to
back real news organizations in America at a time when we desperately need
them to do their work well. More research into the fiasco in Washington, and
across America, is one way to help get us out of this mess.

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Banthum
More representation of people from different backgrounds and philosophies in
the media is one way to help get us out of this mess.

The further concentration of 'voice' in our society towards an already hyper-
powerful few will only make things worse.

It amazes me how much supposedly egalatarian-minded people are happy to
amplify power imbalances if they think it'll be their kind of people holding
the whip.

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coolgeek
This isn't an either-or situation. Both your issue, as well as the parent's,
are true

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bsimpson
Interesting that it includes The Atlantic but not Quartz.

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wand3r
I didn't realize Quartz was incubated by Atlantic until you're comment
prompted me to look into what made that interesting.

As a potential reason why it may not be included I found that it (Quartz) was
being shopped for sale in late 2015-2016[0]. My guess is that they ended up
selling Atlantic media instead, or Quartz is still for sale/being sold.

Agreed, interesting they didn't include it.

[0] [http://fortune.com/2015/12/11/quartz-
sale/](http://fortune.com/2015/12/11/quartz-sale/)

