Are technology billionaires the only hope for the print media?

<p class = "canvas-atom-text-canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "In his September 16 announcement, the Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne buy Time Magazine for $ 190 million in cash, says Meredith Corporation from the start: "Mr. and Mrs. Benioff will not be involved in daily operations or journalistic decisions. " "data-reactid =" 15 "> In its September 16 announcement, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne purchase Time Magazine for $ 190 million in cash, says Meredith CorporationMr. and Mrs. Benioff will not be involved in daily operations or journalistic decisions. "

This is what all billionaires say when they buy a print media property personally, and that's not quite true. Most critics say that a news publication can never really be independent of the influence of its owner.

And of course, the influence is the essential point.

The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, bought the Washington Post in 2013; The founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, supported First Look Media, which launched The Intercept in 2013; Boston Red Sox owner John Henry, who earned money as a commodities broker, bought the Boston Globe in 2013; Laurene Powell Jobs bought a majority stake in The Atlantic last year; Biotech billionaire and NantHealth founder Patrick Soon-Shiong bought L.A. Times this year.

These billionaires do not buy multimedia properties for a return on investment; most publications are barely profitable and short-term health prospects for print media are poor. They buy them as vehicles of influence.

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"Search for cultural influence and influence"

<p class = "canvas-atom-text-canvas Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Another technology CEO buying another media is" a sign of the times, " tweeted Andrew Yang, founder of the Venture For America Non-Profit Exchange. "Publishing still occupies a very important place in society to shape opinions and culture. But its financial viability diminishes. Technicians are in the opposite position – a lot of money and are looking for cultural influence and influence. ""data-reactid =" 32 "> Another technology CEO buying another media is" a sign of the times " tweeted Andrew Yang, founder of the Venture For America Non-Profit Exchange. "Publishing still occupies a very important place in society to shape opinions and culture. But its financial viability diminishes. Technicians are in the opposite position – a lot of money and are looking for cultural influence and influence. "

For Benioff in particular, "the real reason he wants to buy this is to increase his profile," said Andy Serwer, editor of Yahoo Finance, on our live broadcast of the Final Round. "He wants to be more than a mere billionaire software CEO. For many, that would be enough. For him, this is not enough – he wants to be a nationally known character. More people know who Marc Benioff is today than in all his life. Because he's bought Time Magazine.

Of course, billionaires with media properties are not a new phenomenon. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has a proven track record as a securities broker, launched Bloomberg Media Group in 1981. Banker Bruce Wasserstein bought the New York Magazine in 2004. The Sheldon Adelson casino bought the Las Vegas newspaper last year.

"The best for us"

What's new recently is that everything comes from technology. Even technology companies do it: Alibaba (and not Jack Ma personally) bought the South China Morning Post in 2015.

By buying media, these moguls "go full Rosebud", as noted by DataTrek Research in a new note this week, a reference to the movie "Citizen Kane", based on the newspaper's magnate William Randolph Hearst.

<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Increase your visibility by becoming a magazine or newspaper the owner also has a political risk: for Jeff Bezos, that means many tweets President Trump denouncing the "Washington Washington Post" and accusing the newspaper of being "the chief lobbyist" of Amazon. "Data-reactid =" 40 "> Increasing your visibility by becoming the owner of a magazine or newspaper also carries political risks. Bezos, that means many tweets President Trump echoing the "Amazon Washington Post" and accusing the newspaper of being Amazon's "chief lobbyist".

Bezos for the most part ignored Trump's Twitter attacks last year, until an interview last week at the Washington Economic Club, where Bezos said Trump should welcome the media and that "it's really dangerous to demonize the media. It is dangerous to call the media lowlifes, it is dangerous to say that they are the enemy of the people ".

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