when jeff bezoss wife asked him to pick up a newspaper on the way back home she really didnt expect him to purchase the washington post for 250 million the apocryphal joke aside news that the internet tycoon and founderceo of amazon is purchasing the storied american newspaper broke like a thunderclap over us media circles and in washington dc where the flagship daily has ruled the roost for more than a century the last eight decades under the stewardship of the meyergraham familybut on tuesday the post itself reported that the family was selling the paper after an agonizing internal debate because it has not been able to escape the financial turmoil that has engulfed the american print media mainly on account of the rise of the internet and the shifting of loyalties in the west to digital outlets and devices bezos 49 who has an engineering background and is based in seattle will be buying the paper in his personal capacity for 250 million in cash turning the publicly traded entity into a sole private property the expectation even among the posts current ownership is that because bezos will not be under pressure to report positive earnings to shareholders or crank out profits for investors he will be able to experiment boldly even if he loses money for awhile which is what he did with amazon every member of my family started out with the same emotion shock in even thinking about selling the post the papers current chairmanceo donald graham was quoted saying in an interview on monday but when the idea of a transaction with jeff bezos came up it altered my feelings bezoss proven technology and business genius his longterm approach and his personal decency make him a uniquely good new owner for the post the post could have survived under the companys ownership and been profitable for the foreseeable future but we wanted to do more than survive im not saying this guarantees success but it gives us a much greater chance of success he added the transaction expected to be completed in 60 days sent everyone scurrying to scrutinize bezoss political affiliations and ideological leanings considering he will now be the sole owner of the countrys premier national newspaper published from the us capital from all accounts he is a liberal although washington dc has another city newspaper the conservative washington times and dailies such as the wall street journal new york times and usa today are distributed here the post was also the quintessential home town daily a staple for some halfmillion dc area residents in fact such is the institutional heft of the paper that its 15th street office in washington dc the family will retain the real estate along with other profitmaking ventures such as kaplan has its own zip code 20017 dubbed pravda of the potomac in the 1970s because of its alleged left leanings especially during its epic expose of the watergate scandal and the