Scoop: Kara Swisher's long-shot Post bid
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Kara Swisher, the popular podcaster and pioneering tech journalist, is trying to round up a group of rich people to fund a bid for the Washington Post, she told us.
- One big problem: Jeff Bezos, the owner, has shown no interest in selling.
Why it matters: Swisher — who started in the Post mailroom, and became an early tech reporter at the paper (and later one of the first at The Wall Street Journal) — believes the Amazon founder will eventually want to sell, since the paper has become a managerial nightmare.
Like many, Swisher thinks Bezos should sell since he has other financial and personal interests — like space tech — that are more important to him, and can conflict with his Post ownership.
- "The Post can do better," she told us. "It's so maddening to see what's happening. ... Why not me? Why not any of us?"
The backstory: Oliver Darcy reported this fall in his newsletter, Status, that Swisher was "interested in assembling a consortium of wealthy investors to make a bid for the paper."
- Since then, a banker who worked with Swisher in the past has been helping her think through how to move the idea forward.
- The storied paper would be run by a board of civic-minded people willing to write a big check to be part of something important. She'd be open to Bezos remaining a partial investor.
In Swisher's recent memoir, "Burn Book," she recalled imploring former Post publisher Don Graham to pay more attention to the coming digital revolution.
- She's busy as a CNN contributor, host of the "Pivot" podcast with Scott Galloway and her solo "On with Kara Swisher," and editor-at-large for New York Magazine.
- But she has ideas for innovative people who could energize the newsroom, and move the business side toward break-even.
The bottom line: Swisher is confident the money is there. But Bezos would have to want to sell. And she notes there would surely be a long line of other suitors, including giant private equity firms and other power-minded billionaires.
- "Hopefully not Elon," Swisher added, "though he seems pretty busy these days being President (Not) Elect."
🔎 Between the lines: The paper's great quest for an executive editor, once Ben Bradlee's job, has ended with a whimper.
- Matt Murray, originally named to the job through the election, on Thursday announced the newly formed masthead position of standards editor — to be held by Karen Pensiero, who worked for Murray as a managing editor when he was editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal.
- The appointment was intended to signal Murray is there to stay after a high-profile external search.
