"That is why you fail."

Lou Cannon on Bezos and his old employer:

My friend, Peter Silberman, for many years a first-rate editor of various sections of The Post, called later in the day to register his astonishment. Both of us were in a state of shock at what many are characterizing as a sensible business deal. The Washington Post Co. is, after all, a business struggling to keep its head above water at a time when newspapers are floundering. Post stock, of which I have a very small amount, has been surging on the New York Stock Exchange because the company has been selling off other newspaper and magazine properties while keeping its television stations and making various non-journalistic investments.

But stunned we were nevertheless, as Pete explained in words that echoed my sentiments. “Those of us who worked at The Post always believed it was good for society,” he said. “Although it was a business, we thought of it as a public institution. I couldn’t have been more surprised if Congress had been sold to a private bidder.”

I couldn’t have put it better or more succinctly, why the Washington Post was failing as a business.