The Washington Post appears to be pivoting its mission of hard-hitting journalism holding power to account to something with more of an emphasis on “storytelling,” according to a new report in the New York Times. And the timing couldn’t be better, as Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated on Monday. Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Post, will even be in attendance, cheering on his billionaire buddy as America enters a new phase of oligarchy accelerated beyond measure.
Suzi Watford, the Post’s chief strategy officer, has been showing off a new Post slogan internally, “Riveting Storytelling for All of America,” as part of a slide deck about the future of the newspaper, according to the Times. The slide deck reportedly emphasizes storytelling by stating that the goal is to “bring a relentless investigative spirit, backed by credible sources, to deliver impactful stories in formats the world wants.”
That all sounds well and good, if a bit bland, until you remember that Donald fucking Trump is about to take power again. The Post adopted the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness” in 2017, just as Trump entered the White House for the first time. But the newspaper is clearly trying to align its goals with both Trump’s worldview and the business interests of Bezos, who has very lucrative contracts with the U.S. government.
How are we so certain that this shift in focus is to help Trump? It was revealed earlier this week that some of the biggest names in tech will be attending Trump’s inauguration, including Bezos, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg, just to name a few. Far from being treated like a fascist threat, as Trump clearly is, these guys all see Trump as someone who can help them grab even more power and greater market share, fully manipulating the levers of government to serve their interests. Trump has raised a whopping $200 million for his inauguration committee, according to Bloomberg, with big names like Bezos and Cook personally signing $1 million checks for Trump’s inauguration.
We even learned late Wednesday that the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, will be at the inauguration. That fact is notable because the video app is about to effectively be banned in the U.S. on Sunday depending on how the Supreme Court rules. SCOTUS heard oral arguments last week and it’s not clear what Trump will do once he takes office to stop the ban, even a day late. Trump has previously supported a TikTok ban before pulling a complete 180 in March 2024. And some reports suggest Trump is planning an executive order to delay the law from going into effect.
Bezos personally intervened to stop the Washington Post from endorsing Kamala Harris before the election, something Bezos insisted was just based on the principle that his newspaper shouldn’t make endorsements. That was obviously bullshit. The Washington Post made endorsements of Trump’s cabinet nominees this week.
The Post lost more than a quarter million subscribers after it became clear Bezos was interfering in the paper to help Trump and currently has less than 3 million digital subscribers, according to the New York Times. For comparison, the Times has about 11 million subscribers. Apparently, the Washington Post is aiming for 200 million “paying users,” an obnoxiously ridiculous goal for a newspaper that’s been long despised by Trump fans who will probably always think it’s liberal propaganda, no matter how nice they play with the MAGA set. It’s not entirely clear how “paying users” differ from subscriptions, but the speculation is that WaPo will start selling all kinds products and services.
In a previous era, the oligarchic elements of American society were often behind the scenes. But in the second era of Trump, it seems like everything is much more out in the open, with strikingly idiotic business decisions being made to curry favor with Trump. Amazon, for example, reportedly paid $40 million for the rights to broadcast a “documentary” about Melania Trump.
As we wrote shortly after the election in November, Big Tech is on a path to kiss Trump’s ass in ways never thought possible. Some people have speculated that it’s because guys like Zuckerberg don’t want to be thrown in prison, a threat Trump made during the period when he wasn’t in office. And while there may be some element of fear involved, it’s much more likely that these guys simply see an opportunity to make an enormous amount of money. Even more money than these billionaires were ever making before.
Correction: This post originally stated that the Washington Post would drop its slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” something the Post denies. It’ll certainly be interesting to see if that denial holds up during the next year. A spokesperson also took issue with a claim that the newspaper was aiming for 200 million subscriptions, insisting it was actually aiming for 200 million “paying users.” Gizmodo regrets the error while also not fully understanding the difference unless WaPo starts selling mattresses or something.