Axios - Scoop: Kara Swisher's long-shot Post bid

Mike Allen
6 hours ago



Kara Swisher, the popular podcaster and pioneering tech journalist, is trying to round up a group of rich people to fund a bid for the Washington Post, she told us.

One big problem: Jeff Bezos, the owner, has shown no interest in selling.

Why it matters: Swisher — who started in the Post mailroom, and became an early tech reporter at the paper (and later one of the first at The Wall Street Journal) — believes the Amazon founder will eventually want to sell, since the paper has become a managerial nightmare.

Like many, Swisher thinks Bezos should sell since he has other financial and personal interests — like space tech — that are more important to him, and can conflict with his Post ownership.

-"The Post can do better," she told us. "It's so maddening to see what's happening. ... Why not me? Why not any of us?"

The backstory: Oliver Darcy reported this fall in his newsletter, Status, that Swisher was "interested in assembling a consortium of wealthy investors to make a bid for the paper."

-Since then, a banker who worked with Swisher in the past has been helping her think through how to move the idea forward.

-The storied paper would be run by a board of civic-minded people willing to write a big check to be part of something important. She'd be open to Bezos remaining a partial investor.

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