Billionaires and Traditional Media

Just because they're rich doesn't mean they invest in media wisely.

Interesting article about billionaires investing in traditional corporate media outlets in large part to push their political agendas but also to ease guilty consciences about being billionaires in the first place. These billionaires are highlighted by Jeff Bezos who bought the Washington Post for $250 million and Apple billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs (widow of Steve Jobs) who bought 70% of The Atlantic for $160 million. 

Amused that Red Sox principal owner and hedge fund mogul John Henry who bought the Boston Globe for $70 million is not mentioned. Henry seems to have bought the paper to both push a liberal agenda but also to denigrate the other pro sports teams in Boston. Any sports fan paying attention knows this and has stop bothering with the rag long ago.

Also not mentioned is Elon Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter. Probably not mentioned because Twitter does not qualify as a traditional corporate media outlet and Musk's goal was not to push an agenda or ease a guilty conscience. Musk's goals were to preserve free speech in America and to turn a profit for the investors on his $44 billion takeover of Twitter. He seems to be succeeding on both fronts.

Pointing this out because pouring money into traditional media outlets seems like spending good money after bad. These outlets are literally bleeding both money and subscribers. Meanwhile the need for cash leaves them open to other rich billionaire who want to push a lefty agenda. They literally push fake news which causes readers not to trust the outlet and cancel subscriptions. It's a downward spiral. 

Meanwhile the new media outlets like X (formerly Twitter) or just look at the views of Tucker Carlson's episodes for confirmation plus Substack stars such as Matt Taibbi's Racket or Bari Weiss' Free Press which are tackling issues traditional media seems too timid to tackle but that readers want to learn about. These are all growing while the news about traditional media outlets are all bad and show them shrinking.

We are literally watching the birth of new media and the death of the old.