NPR

At 'Washington Post,' Tech Is Increasingly Boosting Financial Performance

The newspaper struggled amid declines in print ads, but under Amazon's Jeff Bezos, it has transformed its operations, from how it writes headlines and chooses photos to how it generates ad dollars.
Journalists at The Washington Post work in a newsroom surrounded by screens showing its website and updated reader metrics. / MANDEL NGAN / Getty Images

When I started my career at The Washington Post in the late 1990s, the newsroom wore a dusty, outdated look as if it were paying homage to its legendary past. The Post of today occupies an updated building on D.C.'s renowned K Street, in modern, glass-walled offices with a Silicon Valley aesthetic.

This is the Post after Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO and e-commerce visionary, bought it in 2013. Since then, the paper's business and technology has almost outshone its award-winning journalism.

Before Bezos, the was losing revenue and its losses were widening, as it struggled to find is now privately owned and doesn't discuss specific figures, but says revenue and profits are up, as subscribers grow and . Its monthly Web traffic has grown 56 percent, to over the past two years, according to ComScore.

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