Huffington Magazine Issue 84 | Page 35

DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE NEW YORKER Voices Wonkblog at washingtonpost.com, is reportedly leaving for a new venture, as yet undefined. According to Ravi Somaiya in The New York Times, Klein sought an eight-figure Post investment in the new project. Klein already has his own Wonkblog staff, but clearly he has something much bigger in mind — perhaps an all-purpose independent news organization along the lines of Talking Points Memo. (Although it wouldn’t be called Wonkblog — the Post owns the name and will be keeping it, writes The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone, who broke the news about Klein’s proposal last month.) We can’t know everything that went into the decision. Maybe it came down to money. But Wonkblog generates a hefty amount of web traffic — more than 4 million pageviews a month, according to a profile of Klein in The New Republic last February. “It’s ‘fuck you traffic,’” a Post source told TNR’s Julia Ioffe. “He’s always had enough traffic to end any argument with the senior editors.” Apparently, that’s no longer the case. Significantly, The Times reports that new Post owner Jeff Bezos was involved in the decision to let Klein leave. Last September, DAN KENNEDY HUFFINGTON 01.19.14 It would have been enormously beneficial to the Post if Politico had been launched under its own umbrella. And Politico itself might be better.” shortly after announcing his intention to buy The Post for $250 million, the Amazon.com founder lauded the “daily ritual” of reading the morning paper — which led to some chiding by one of The Post’s own journalists, Timothy B. Lee. Despite Bezos’ well-earned reputation as a clear-eyed digital visionary, he appears to have some romantic notions about the business he’s bought into. And allowing entrepreneurs such as the twentysomething Klein run his own shop inside The Post might not fit with that vision. What makes the likely Klein de- Ezra Klein’s eight-figure proposal for a new Washington Post venture was turned down.