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Is The Washington Put up in full-scale collapse? A latest have a look at the numbers offers a reasonably convincing reply to that query.
In line with the report, not solely is the Put up shedding $100 million a 12 months, nevertheless it misplaced over half of its on-line engagement by the tip of 2023. The indicators have been already there by mid-year, and the worst has come to go.
That is from Bonchie, “The Washington Put up Is in Full-Scale Collapse,” RedState, January 5, 2024.
Bonchie goes on to write down:
Having a billionaire sugar daddy [Jeff Bezos] has helped masks a number of the points plaguing the Put up, however the tide can solely be held again so lengthy. To lose over 50 % of its on-line viewership is catastrophic for an outlet with such excessive overhead prices. Subscriber numbers have additionally nosedived all through the Biden administration.
I’m reminded of my favourite scene from one in all my favourite motion pictures, Citizen Kane. I truly discovered a supply many years in the past, means earlier than the net, that had the dialogue printed out and it was on my cork board at work for many years. It’s an attractive train in numeracy.
Right here’s the dialogue:
Walter Parks Thatcher (Charles Kane’s authorized guardian): Don’t you suppose it’s reasonably unwise to proceed this philanthropic enterprise, this Inquirer that’s costing you one million {dollars} a 12 months?
Charles Foster Kane: You’re proper, Mr. Thatcher. I did lose one million {dollars} final 12 months. I anticipate to lose one million {dollars} this 12 months. I anticipate to lose one million {dollars} subsequent 12 months. You realize, Mr. Thatcher, on the charge of one million {dollars} a 12 months, I’ll have to shut this place in [pause] 60 years.
Let’s say that Bezos’s losses rise to $200 million a 12 months and keep there. His web price in 2022 was $167 billion. So if he makes solely a 1% return on his property, that’s $1.67 billion a 12 months. At that charge, he’ll have to shut the Washington Put up in– by no means.
There’s one different huge distinction moreover the truth that for Bezos it’s rounding error and for Citizen Kane it wasn’t. I feel I can work out from the film what Citizen Kane’s motivation was for operating the Inquirer the best way he did. I’ve by no means had a clue about what Jeff Bezos’s motivation is in proudly owning the Washington Put up.
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