Bezos says he'll use Amazon money to experiment with ways to make journalism more appealing at Post

I like the sound of this:

The main thrust of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's interview with the Washington Post about how he'll run the paper (his first since buying the Post last month), is that he'll bring the same sensibility he used at Amazon, which he boils down to: "Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient."

That means Bezos plans to provide a "runway" of financial support for Post management to experiment with ways to make the paper profitable. And he doesn't expect change to happen quickly. Or rather, he has a unique idea of what "quickly" means.

"You develop theories and hypotheses, but you don’t know if readers will respond. You do as many experiments as rapidly as possible. 'Quickly' in my mind would be years."

But Bezos was clear that he wanted the Post's mission to have "readers at its centerpiece," not advertisers, and that he wants those readers to buy in.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/09/bezos-wants-to-bring-amazon-approach-to-the-post.html

The reason I like this is because it treats news like a real industry, in which making the product appealing to the consumer market is a top priority. I have to say this runs completely contrary to what I've seen first-hand in the newspaper industry over the past decade-plus -- where the goal has appeared to be making the product as cheap to produce as possible without regard to whether people will still like it or want it. Hopefully this isn't just talk from Bezos.

I dont know
I think we are better off with the internet
News like many industries shoudln't really be profitable.
it should break even, create some jobs etc but it shouldn't be and industry were millionaires are made.

I think part of the problem with the world is that every thing HAS to profitable things like news, heath, education, communication and transport should be hardly profitable. Companies don't want to exist make a fair return they all want to the huge profit, this has left us with a bunch of shit companies that dont provide a service/product of decent value. Example Newspapers should be free since they already make their money from Ads, Or they should have limited Ads since they are already being paid for by the consumer. the Newspaper companies want both and thus are bad value to the consumer since they end up paying for something full of Ads, in this day and age the consumer can get paid for watching ads (thanks Internet) so obviously paying to see them is ridiculous.

I think we are better off with the internet

Ink or pixels, doesn't matter -- industries don't advance without investment into innovation. And right now, breaking even is an impossible dream for most news orgs.

But yeah, one of the biggest problems with news orgs of today is they're owned by corporations, which in turn answer to shareholders who demand big profits. News orgs owned by individuals or families do much better work.

Put the customer first. Invent.

Just as long as he doesn't "invent" the news like Fox does.