One striking feature of the world of 1970s newspaper publishing, lovingly recreated by the film The Post , is the single-minded devotion of the Washington Post’s owner Katharine Graham to her family’s company and its flagship product.
Graham had other interests, and the film makes clear she cultivated a highly active social circle in the US capital. But the paper was her focal point.
The news organisation’s current owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, wants to emulate the Graham era. According to the New York Times, he intends to host “salon-style dinners” at the house in Washington that he is renovating. But Mr Bezos’s peripatetic life is a stark contrast to Graham’s focus. He must juggle his ownership of the Post with the fortunes of Blue Origin, his space start-up, his philanthropic interests and the ever-expanding ambitions of Amazon. The complexity makes the linear world of 1970s business look as out of date as the report-type-print-repeat workdays of old-school newspaper journalists.