Huffington Magazine Issue 61 | Page 6

Enter POINTERS HUFFINGTON 08.11.13 ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES 1 The Washington Post shocked its staff and the media world with an announcement this week that the paper would be sold to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for $250 million. The family of Washington Post Company CEO Donald Graham has owned the paper for generations, but Graham said they decided to sell because of economic struggles. The company’s newspaper division lost $49.3 million in the first half of 2013. “I, along with Katharine Weymouth and our board of directors, decided to sell only after years of familiar newspaper-industry challenges made us wonder if there might be another owner who would be better for the Post,” Graham said. Bezos, who is personally worth $25.2 billion, also bought other newspaper titles owned by the company, including The Gazette Newspapers, Fairfax County Times and Sout hern Maryland Newspapers.