Free Republic

The Washington Post Co. has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos, ending the Graham family’s stewardship of one of America’s leading news organizations after four generations. Bezos, whose entrepreneurship has made him one of the world’s richest men, will pay $250 million in cash for The Post and affiliated publications to the Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses. Seattle-based Amazon will have no role in the purchase; Bezos himself will buy the news organization and become its sole owner when the sale is completed, probably within 60...

It's official: Christiane Amanpour has been named the next host of ABC's "This Week." CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton notified staff today that ABC will " announce today that she is joining that organization to headline one of its programs. " Walton noted that despite the "media speculation," the network where she's worked for 27 years has not yet commented. Walton praised Amanpour's reporting over the years, and said that her "work burnished our news brand and gave it authority." "In turn, the CNN imprimatur opened doors for her around the world and provided a global platform for the intelligent,...

Cox Enterprises, Inc. has decided to put The Lufkin Daily News and all its Texas newspapers up for sale with a goal of closing a deal by the first quarter of 2009. Based in Atlanta, Cox also intends to sell all its stand-alone newspapers in North Carolina and Colorado, as well as Valpak, a direct-mail advertising operation. Other Texas papers Cox intends to sell include: the Austin American-Statesmen, The Longview News-Journal, the Waco Tribune-Herald, The Marshall News Messenger and the Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches. Cox will retain ownership of daily newspapers in Atlanta; Dayton, Ohio; and West Palm Beach, Fla....

The Lexington Herald-Leader on Monday offered a voluntary buyout program to its full-time employees. Noting that the newspaper industry's traditional business model is undergoing dramatic change, Publisher Timothy M. Kelly said in a memo to employees that “the economy continues to worsen, and we must make the painful choice to reduce expenses further.” Kelly said it is premature to set a target for the number of buyouts or to say whether layoffs will follow if a certain number of employees fail to leave voluntarily. “We may limit the number of voluntary applications we accept given business needs or to ensure...

The move, detailed in a memo to staff from the newspaper's editor, Martin Baron, comes after the Globe's parent company, The New York Times Co., announced earlier this month that it would eliminate about 125 positions through buyouts and other steps at the Globe and the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester. Baron said the four people who work in the bureaus would be offered positions in Boston. "Continuing to bear the expense of our foreign bureaus would have required us to reduce staffing by a dozen or so positions beyond those already announced," Baron wrote. "We concluded that it would...