WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (RIA Novosti) - The Washington Post, an influential and revered standard-bearer of US journalism for decades and flagship publication of The Washington Post Co., has been sold for 250 million dollars to billionaire businessman Jeffrey Bezos, founder of the Amazon.com retail website, the newspaper reported Monday.
"Every member of my family started out with the same emotion -- shock -- in even thinking about" selling the newspaper, the Post quoted Donald Graham, the Post Co.'s chief executive, as saying in an interview Monday after the sale, negotiated in unusual and near-total secrecy, was announced.
The Graham family has owned and run the newspaper for four generations. The Post has a long history of breaking major news stories including the Watergate scandal series, reported by Bob Woodward and Richard Bernstein, that resulted in the resignation of the late US President Richard Nixon.
The Post article announcing the sale noted that The Washington Post Co.'s newspaper division had seen its operating revenue decline by 44 percent in the past six years alone while its print circulation has declined steadily for years.
"I don't want to imply that I have a worked-out plan," Bezos, 49, said in an interview with the Post. "This will be uncharted terrain, and it will require experimentation."
Bezos will pay for the newspaper in cash and both parties said management and operations of the newspaper would continue without disruption following the sale.
