Retail Revolutionary buys Famed News Daily

Courtesy: www.mercatornet.com

As I leafed through the newspaper today morning, this news piece had me wide and awake. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has bought one of the most prestigious and famed US newspapers- The Washington Post.

Spates of acquisitions have been making the news lately. Be it The New York Times selling The Boston Globe or IBT Media (A digital news company) buying Newsweek. Off the lot, the Washington Post news caught my fancy the most. The fact that only the newspapers arm has been sold off while the real estate and education business (Kaplan) have been retained speaks volumes of how dwindling circulation numbers and lack of revenue growth left The Post Company with no choice but to sell.

The sale was probably long coming, however that Bezos would make the purchase would have stunned many. It has been explicitly reported that Amazon would have no role to play in this acquisition however if one takes a pause and gives it a thought, a handshake between the two might not turn out to be a bad idea at all. Bezos’ comments in his note to the WP employees on the need to experiment and look for newer revenue making opportunities just complements the thought.

A few touch points here and there; cross selling and up selling of products etc. can help in multiple ways-

1. Given WP Amazon’s technology advantage. WP is not known to have state of the art technology infrastructure, the Amazon mantra could be very useful here. Greg Sandoval voices similar opinions at The Verge


2. Advertising Amazon on WP and vice versa can help increase foot fall/page visits esp. for WP


3. Enriching the content on WP using advertising to link Amazon products to relevant content


4. Developing new subscription models by bundling Amazon offers and discounts with WP print and online subscriptions.


5. Linking product reviews by Users across Amazon and WP, providing an in-depth product feedback and analysis


6. Localization- providing shipping/subscription discounts depending on high volumes of purchase in a particular area etc.


7. Bringing in WP’s distribution to help Amazon strengthen their. A view voiced by Ian Burrell on the Independent as well.

These are just a few examples of how both brands could be leveraged well to benefit one another. Such a strategy demonstrating synergies between media and retail could well change the way both industries work today.

On the one hand we have an extremely traditional newspaper; on the other a platform that revolutionized the retailing world and to a large extent was the driving force for the eBook industry; given what Bezos has done to Amazon, it would be interesting to sit back and watch what he would do to move WP ahead in what I call the fight for survival by newspapers across the globe.

All we need to do right now is sit back and watch this space for more.