Mr Bezos is buying the paper and its other print properties in a personal capacity.

 

The Post has been owned by the Graham family for 80 years.

 

"Years of familiar newspaper-industry challenges made us wonder if there might be another owner who would be better for the Post," said Post chief executive, Donald Graham.

 

"Jeff Bezos' proven technology and business genius, his long-term approach and his personal decency¹ make him a uniquely good new owner for the Post."

 

The Washington Post Company also owns Kaplan, a test preparation company, in addition to other properties. Those will stay under the ownership of the Grahams as part of a yet-unnamed entity².

 

The sale is expected to be completed in the next 60 days.

 

 

The flagship paper, known for its coverage³ of the Watergate scandal, has suffered in recent years as the internet has hurt advertisement sales and it has struggled to adapt its print coverage to the web.

 

The Post has been "declining in circulation especially among young readers," Horizon Media analyst⁴ Brad Adgate told the BBC.

 

Nonetheless, he added: "I always thought this would be a newspaper that would be able to withstand the digital tide because of the name and the prestige. It is, next to the New York Times, the most prestigious⁵ paper in the country."

 

According to the Alliance for Audited⁶ Media, a newspaper auditing⁷ firm, the Washington Post was the seventh most popular daily newspaper in the US this year, with a total circulation of 474,767 - a 6.5% decline on last year.

 

In an open letter posted on the Washington Post's website, Mr Bezos said he would not be leading the paper on a day-to-day basis and sought to reassure⁸ nervous employees, but saying he would not seek to change "the values" of the paper.

 

However, he added: "There will, of course, be change at The Post over the coming years...The internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding⁹ long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs."

 

Mr Bezos said he did not have a plan yet for what exactly he thought those changes would be.

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