Catch-up service:
Giving Up On the Humanities Is a Mistake
The Orangutan Theory of Intelligence
Introducing/Pre-Ordering ‘John & Paul’
Why Britain’s Elites Shun Highbrow Culture
How the World Failed Greta
Consumer boycotts rarely work and newspapers are no exception. The irate reader pompously announcing the cancellation of a subscription is a media in-joke. But the Washington Post has taken a big hit over the decision of its proprietor not to allow it to endorse Kamala Harris in next week’s election. Not only are its staff in open rebellion; its readers are too. The Post has reportedly lost 200,000 digital subscribers, virtually overnight. That is eight percent of its subscription base, in one fell swoop. Hoo boy.
I don’t think the Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, will have anticipated such an outcome even if he knew some readers would be upset. It makes little pecuniary difference to him, though presumably he does care somewhat about the performance of his newspaper. He gave his new publisher, Will Lewis, a remit to make the paper financially viable, and the smaller its readership becomes, the less weight it carries with the powerful. Bezos has by all accounts been a rather half-hearted power player in Washington, but the point of owning a newspaper is, at least in part, its influence.
So this was a blunder. But what kind of blunder - one of substance, or one of execution and timing?
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