Ex-Washington Post fact checker calls Jeff Bezos ‘absentee owner’

The Washington Submit is a sinking ship with a captain who’s lacking in motion. And based on his now Formator Reality Checker, that lacking captain is his billionary proprietor, Jeff Bezos.

“He should be devoted with it. If he’s not devoted to it, he should discover another person to own it,” Glenn Kessler informed Fox Information Digital. “I really feel that he was a bit concerned for it. After which he’s a form of absent proprietor, and he shouldn’t be as a result of, you already know, you already know, probably the most vital belongings of American journalism.”

Kessler left the submit in July after greater than 27 years on the newspaper – and his final years weren’t one of the best.

“What’s so unhappy is that I hadn’t thought the Washington Submit on this state 5 years in the past,” stated Kessler.

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Former Washington Submit Reality Checker Glenn Kessler says that billionaire Jeff Bezos “must be devoted” to avoid wasting the newspaper he owns or “discover another person to own it”. (Getty Photos / Singerhmk – Wiki Commons)

Kessler has by no means thought-about leaving the mail till he acquired the buyout providing that he accepted. The place has been financially bleeding, a lot in order that it was reportedly on tempo to lose no less than $ 77 million in 2024. The buyouts had centered on essentially the most skilled workers, aimed toward decreasing prices and to defend dismissal in the intervening time.

The well-known Reality Checker was certainly one of varied high-profile journalists and columnists who’ve left the newspaper in latest months, a lot of whom have made the selections and editorial modifications that Bezos had ordered.

Kessler in contrast the submit with “to be on the Titanic after it had struck an iceberg – aimless floating whereas it sank, with not sufficient lifeboats for everybody” In one piece he wrote on his newly launched substitations account.

“They should have a imaginative and prescient the place they need to go. And I’ve not seen that imaginative and prescient but. Or if there’s a imaginative and prescient, it isn’t clearly articulated,” Kessler stated. “Will probably be a very rocky interval within the information business within the subsequent 5 to 10 years. And the submit should be ready for that. And I really feel that they’ve misplaced loads, you already know, vital sailors and captains to keep up the ship. In order that they need to do it with much less.”

Earlier than touching the iceberg

Bezos has been the goal of intense return by Liberals, who’ve accused him of bending his knee for President Donald Trump based mostly on actions that the newspaper has shocked.

First his choice was in October to cease the deliberate approval of the then vice-president Kamala Harris, just some days earlier than the presidential election.

He then launched a brand new mission for the editorial pages in February to advertise “private freedoms and free markets” as a result of he wouldn’t publish any paperwork that go in opposition to these ideas.

Each instances led to riot among the many liberal readers of the newspaper, which led to the cancellation of a whole lot of 1000’s of subscriptions. Varied workers additionally resigned in protest.

However Kessler was not at all times a critic of Bezos. He has credited the founding father of Amazon for storing the submit when he purchased it in 2013.

“Earlier than Bezos purchased the newspaper, it was in actually dangerous situation,” he informed Fox Information Digital. “Individuals overlook how, you already know, as a result of the Graham household didn’t actually have the means to maintain it within the new period. And there had been a number of buyouts and other people had been requested to depart. So it had been a fairly grim interval at the moment.”

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Kessler known as Jeff Bezos a “absent proprietor” of the Washington Submit. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty photos)

Issues within the submit had been so very bitter so Kessler himself had interviewed for one more job outdoors the newspaper. That was till he was provided the Reality Checker Stint in 2011, which he accepted, considering that if the ship went down, he himself might keep together with his personal ‘model’.

“However then Bezos purchased the newspaper and he invested some huge cash within the newspaper,” stated Kessler. ‘So the dimensions of the employees doubled. The variety of international companies in all probability went up [by] At the very least a 3rd. The sources devoted to engineering help, so the online pages began loading quicker and we might make improbable graphics. There was funding in video … and you actually had the sensation that the mail was going to locations, and it truly produced higher journalism at any time within the time I had labored on the submit. “

“And now it is simply … it is prefer it’s an iceberg, and it’s kind of of a float there, and I do not suppose there’s a plan to put it aside. Or no less than a plan to, you already know, the ship to show and get it transferring within the course it was.”

‘The Avis downside’

Kessler blamed the administration as a result of he was “a bit blinded” by the visitors peak that got here throughout the first Trump administration and ranges “nearly equal” reached on the high rival of the submit, the New York Occasions. However then, in contrast to the Occasions, the mail couldn’t profit from his new readers by not increasing his portfolio.

“I’ve been in lots of conferences and have had many discussions and have heard many speeches. I nonetheless do not know what they’re attempting to do,” stated Kessler about his former bosses. “It appears obscure to say that we’ll attraction [to] The folks … who do not actually care concerning the information. And we’re going to supply merchandise with which they’ll learn the Washington Submit and discover data they should know, “he stated.

“And the issue, as I wrote in my piece, is that what the New York Occasions has been doing for ten years. They’ve 10 million subscribers, however a big a part of it’s individuals who don’t get the core information product,” Kessler continued. “They get the recipes, they get the athletics – the sports activities part, they get product suggestions, they get the video games, they play a phrase.”

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He stated that the submit is connected to ‘the Avis downside’, just about the previous ads of the automotive rental firm that claimed ‘we strive it tougher’, referring to the fact that it was at all times within the shadow of Hertz, a dynamic just like the grey girl.

“The Washington Submit has at all times been quantity 2. It has by no means had the identical dimension circulation because the occasions. I might declare that the reporting within the information was higher, however maybe I used to be biased about that,” Kessler admitted Fox Information Digital.

“However now on this fragmented market, folks have to choose. To which substites will I subscribe? On which newsletters will I get? On which networks will I look?” Oh, I would like one newspaper. I can be keen to spend cash on one newspaper, “and De Standaard is at all times, sadly, the New York Occasions.”

He continued: “It’s a broader product. It has higher doctor reporting, theater reporting. I by no means gained perception into how the submit was going to struggle that downside. And it seemed like the answer was:” Oh, we can be like a mini-me New York Occasions with issues that do not comply with information. ” Properly, they already get that within the New York Occasions “

The submit has deleted an initiative that can be known as ‘WP Ventures’ final yr, meant to draw customers of social media. The newspaper, nonetheless, appears to be already working with the announcement of Tuesday of the previous Axios Govt Editor and former Submit Reporter, Sara Kehaulani Goo, who returns as his president of Creator Community-a place that Goo says that the “personality-controlled content material will create” and helps advertisers.

The Washington Submit had simply carried out a spherical of buyouts which can be aimed on the most veteran of workers. (Kevin Carter/Getty photos)

The ‘meteorite’ wipes the remaining dinosaurs

The Occasions and the Rise of New Media weren’t the one obstacles that the submit was confronted with.

“Midway by way of my journalistic profession I began saying:” I work for a dinosaur. ” And Ai is maybe the meteorite that may kill the final dinosaurs, “Kessler informed Fox Information Digital. “I’m very fearful about what AI goes to do, as a result of AI goes to kill search. And looking out was how folks typically discovered our information articles.”

“The statistics I had seen had been 4 or 5 years in the past each 100 searches on Google returned on a information website on Google. Now it is about each 100 searches, two clicks on the information website yields. When folks use AI, a thousand searches lead to one click on,” he continued. “So it is a dramatic distinction. And if I run a information group, I did not know what I might do about it in the mean time. So it is a dangerous time to handle a brand new group. I sympathize with the state of affairs [Washington Post publisher and CEO] Will Lewis and [Washington Post executive editor] Matt Murray is now in. I simply surprise in the event that they actually came upon what they need to do. “

Goo stated in her announcement that “we’re going to infuse AI with all the pieces we do to assist us maximize effectivity and scale.”

However the goat ultimately stops with Bezos, based on Kessler.

“The submit was actually on the peak [after Bezos’ purchase]- The quantity of tales we produce, the standard of the tales was actually vital. After which the visitors rose when Trump was chosen and there was a lot starvation and curiosity within the information that we produced. Then we misplaced our manner, “stated Kessler.” And never solely misplaced our manner, we began to lose cash. A yr 100 million {dollars}, I feel the final track I’ve seen [in] 2023 was $ 77 million … I even suppose for an individual who’s as wealthy as Jeff Bezos, that counts like actual cash. “

“And I obtained the sensation that he’s a little bit of an absent proprietor. He has had different distractions, and he has devoted extra to a few of his different firms, comparable to an area firm, then he was at Washington Submit, which is known as a small a part of his enterprise investments. And perhaps I do not know,” he did not get it, and we added it.

A spokesperson for the Washington Submit informed Fox Information Digital, “The Washington Submit finds itself once more as a trusted information supply for all Individuals. Which means exhausting work on daily basis to publish essentially the most correct information, along with opinions that resonate all through the nation. “

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Annie McCuen from Fox Information has contributed to this report.