Amazon founder buys The Post

Donald E Graham,chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Company,and the third generation of the Graham family to lead the paper,told the staff about the sale Monday afternoon.

Graham,in a statement,said nobody should be sad except,for me. The announcement was greeted by what many staff members described as shock.

In Bezos,The Post will have a very different owner,a technologist whose fortunes have risen in the last dozen years even as those of The Post and most newspapers have struggled.

In the meeting,Graham stressed that Bezos would purchase The Post in a personal capacity and not on behalf of Amazon the company.

The 250 million deal includes all of the publishing businesses owned by company,including the Express newspaper,The Gazette Newspapers,Southern Maryland Newspapers,Fairfax County Times,El Tiempo Latino and Greater Washington Publishing. The company plans to hold on to Slate,The Root.com and Foreign Policy.

Bezos has asked publisher Katharine Weymouth to remain at The Post along with Stephen P Hills,president and general manager; Martin Baron,executive editor; and Fred Hiatt,editor of the editorial page.

Timeline

1877: Washington Post founded by Stilson Hutchins on December 6.

1880: The paper adds a Sunday edition,becoming DCs first newspaper to publish seven days a week.

1933 8211; Former chairman of Federal Reserve Eugene Meyer buys Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction. His daughter,Katharine Graham,would go on to lead the company.

1946 8211; Philip L Graham,who married Katharine in 1940,takes over company.

1961 8211; Bought Newsweek.

1963 8211; Philip Graham commits suicide with a shotgun; Katharine becomes president of the Washington Post Co.

1971 8211; Katharine takes The Post Co public with the sale of Class B stock at a price of 26 per share.

1972 8211; The Post publishes first article concerning a break-in at the Democratic National Committees office at the Watergate complex. Subsequent coverage by reporters Woodward and Bernstein is instrumental in President Nixons resignation in 1974.

1973 8211; Warren Buffett makes first purchase of Washington Post stock.

1984 8211; The company purchases Stanley H Kaplan Education Centers Limited for 45 million.

2008 8211; Katharine Weymouth,Katharine Grahams granddaughter,takes over as publisher of the Washington Post.

2010 8211; Newsweek sold to Sidney Harman for 1.