Bezos: "I spend a lot of shower time thinking about the Washington Post."
— Mike Madden (@MikeMadden) February 1, 2016
.@JeffBezos, definitely just visiting DC: "I don't know how you guys live here, honestly"
— Rebecca Sinderbrand (@sinderbrand) February 1, 2016
Luckily for us, journalists like to live-tweet events, so Post staffers gave us a play-by-play account of Bezos’ talk.
In addition to offers to Donald Trump, Bezos discussed the future of the Post’s print edition, the state of diversity in the newsroom, and the importance of turning users who visit the Post online into paying customers. Here are the highlights:
Jeff Bezos: "To be the paper of record we need talent, money and patience and we have all three."
— Kelyn Soong (@KelynSoong) February 1, 2016
WP reporter to Bezos: "How patient will you be with us?"
Bezos: "I don't know anyone more patient than me"
— Rebecca Sinderbrand (@sinderbrand) February 1, 2016
"Eventually the long term does need to come, for sure." -Bezos, on his patience
— Alyssa Rosenberg (@AlyssaRosenberg) February 1, 2016
Bezos: "My prediction is, [the Post] is going to be in investment mode for some time."
— Mike Madden (@MikeMadden) February 1, 2016
Bezos: “Is there a difference between being in investment mode and being unprofitable? I think there is.”
— Mike Madden (@MikeMadden) February 1, 2016
Bezos says it's healthier for @washingtonpost to make a small amount of money on a very large group of readers than the reverse.
— Alyssa Rosenberg (@AlyssaRosenberg) February 1, 2016
Bezos: "Efficiency and exploration are in tension with each other. Wandering can feel inefficient. … I'm a big fan of wandering."
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) February 1, 2016
"How do we use our a la carte traffic to start to drive subscriptions?" Bezos says this question is unanswered, but he's optimistic
— Alyssa Rosenberg (@AlyssaRosenberg) February 1, 2016
The print product remains incredibly important to the revenue of The Post. … It's going to be here a long time. — Jeff Bezos.
— Lisa Bonos (@lisabonos) February 1, 2016
Bezos sees a 10, 20 year timeline for the print edition.
— lori aratani (@loriara) February 1, 2016
The one Bezos town hall line I will text my mother: "When things normalize, we're going to be all over the Cuban market." #vivacubalibre
— Tanya Sichynsky (@tanyasic) February 1, 2016
Jeff Bezos: "Principles trump metrics. But only a very bad business person would ignore metrics." pic.twitter.com/B9GHDhr6X7
— Sarah Kaufman (@SarahLKaufman) February 1, 2016
Bezos on diversity at @washingtonpost: "You have to acknowledge it's an issue." But doesn't say much beyond that.
— Alyssa Rosenberg (@AlyssaRosenberg) February 1, 2016
On diversity issues today, Bezos has been very quick to acknowledge issues, and absolutely cut off all discussions of solutions.
— Alyssa Rosenberg (@AlyssaRosenberg) February 1, 2016
"My own opinion is that you should go home to sleep…People should have lives outside of work. It's healthy." -Bezos to Post staffers
— Alyssa Rosenberg (@AlyssaRosenberg) February 1, 2016
