Over the course of a generation, the story of the daily newspaper
has been an unchecked slide from record profitability and
readership to plummeting profits, increasing irrelevance, and
inevitable obsolescence. The forces killing major dailies,
alternative weeklies, and small-town shoppers are well
understood-or seem obvious in hindsight, at least-and the catalog
of publications that have gone under reads like a who's who of
American journalism. During the past half-century, old-style press
barons gave way to a cabal of corporate interests who were unable
or unwilling to invest in the future even as technological change
was destroying their core business. The Taylor family sold the
Boston Globe to the New York Times Company in 1993 for a cool $1.1
billion. Twenty years later, the Times Company resold it for just
$70 million. The unexpected story, however, is not what they sold
it for but who they sold it to: John Henry, the principal owner of
the Boston Red Sox. A billionaire who made his money in the world
of high finance, Henry inspired optimism in Boston because of his
track record as a public-spirited business executive-and because
his deep pockets seemed to ensure that the shrunken newspaper would
not be subjected to further downsizing. In just a few days, the
sale of the Globe was overtaken by much bigger news: Jeff Bezos,
the founder of Amazon and one of the world's richest people, had
reached a deal to buy the Washington Post for $250 million. Henry's
ascension at the Globe sparked hope. Bezos's purchase seemed to
inspire nothing short of ecstasy, as numerous observers expressed
the belief that his lofty status as one of our leading digital
visionaries could help him solve the daunting financial problems
facing the newspaper business. Though Bezos and Henry are the two
most prominent individuals to enter the newspaper business, a third
preceded them. Aaron Kushner, a greeting-card executive, acquired
California's Orange County Register in July 2012 then pursued an
audacious agenda, expanding coverage and hiring journalists in an
era when nearly all other newspaper owners were trying to avoid
cutting both. The Return of the Moguls chronicles a story in the
making. Is a return to old-style individual ownership sparking a
renaissance for the newspaper business, and if so, how?
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