Good piece in The New Republic about Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his $250 million purchase of the Washington Post, which represents a fascinating - and potentially game-changing - convergence of new technology and old media.
You can read the whole thing here, but here's the lede that caught my eye:
"What’s intriguing about Jeff Bezos, who purchased The Washington Post this week, is not that he’s a digital guy or that he has a lot of money—though both certainly help—but that ever since he founded Amazon, he’s specialized in the long view. The company lost money for nine years, and Bezos continues to prioritize long-term investment over near-term profit. That's how great, enduring companies are created or transformed—by building a strong infrastructure, products, brand, and deep relationships with customers. And to their credit, Amazon shareholders are rewarding this strategy and vision. They know there will be time enough to see returns on these investments, returns that will reflect the massive value Bezos is building,
"By contrast, too many news companies have been paralyzed by the tyranny of short-term horizons. Media executives under-invested in digital not because they were stupid but because it was actually more rational for them to focus on slowing the decline of their traditional revenue lines—more rational, that is, in the short run. In the long run, of course, that thinking is suicidal."
If one is willing to entertain the notion that this kind of convergence can take place in virtually every industry, then one has to start thinking about one's own short-term vs. long-term thinking ... and whether one is being "paralyzed by the tyranny of short-term horizons."
Check it out. And then think about it.
You can read the whole thing here, but here's the lede that caught my eye:
"What’s intriguing about Jeff Bezos, who purchased The Washington Post this week, is not that he’s a digital guy or that he has a lot of money—though both certainly help—but that ever since he founded Amazon, he’s specialized in the long view. The company lost money for nine years, and Bezos continues to prioritize long-term investment over near-term profit. That's how great, enduring companies are created or transformed—by building a strong infrastructure, products, brand, and deep relationships with customers. And to their credit, Amazon shareholders are rewarding this strategy and vision. They know there will be time enough to see returns on these investments, returns that will reflect the massive value Bezos is building,
"By contrast, too many news companies have been paralyzed by the tyranny of short-term horizons. Media executives under-invested in digital not because they were stupid but because it was actually more rational for them to focus on slowing the decline of their traditional revenue lines—more rational, that is, in the short run. In the long run, of course, that thinking is suicidal."
If one is willing to entertain the notion that this kind of convergence can take place in virtually every industry, then one has to start thinking about one's own short-term vs. long-term thinking ... and whether one is being "paralyzed by the tyranny of short-term horizons."
Check it out. And then think about it.
- KC's View:
