{"id":378141,"date":"2018-09-22T02:56:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T01:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/they-think-it-would-be-fun-to-run-a-newspaper\/"},"modified":"2018-09-22T02:56:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T01:56:40","slug":"they-think-it-would-be-fun-to-run-a-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/they-think-it-would-be-fun-to-run-a-newspaper\/","title":{"rendered":"They Think It Would Be Fun to Run a Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marc<\/p>\n

New Time<\/strong> owner Marc Benioff (cc photo: Fortune<\/strong> Global Forum)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The announcement that Time<\/b> magazine would be bought by software CEO Marc Benioff highlighted the growing trend of billionaires buying up media outlets. While media moguls have always been wealthy\u2014with press barons (Rupert Murdoch<\/a>, Michael Bloomberg<\/a>, Donald Newhouse, etc.) still well-represented on Forbes<\/b>\u2019 running list<\/a> of the world\u2019s billionaires\u2014what distinguishes this new breed of press magnate is that they bought their media properties with fortunes made in other industries.<\/p>\n

Some, like Benioff, come out of the tech industry; tech tycoons like Amazon<\/b>\u2019s Jeff Bezos<\/a>, eBay<\/b>\u2019s Pierre Omidyar and Steve Jobs\u2019 widow Laurene Powell Jobs have profited from a tech boom (or bubble<\/a>) that gives them plenty of cash to spend. Others come out of the financial sector, which has doubled its share<\/a> of the US economy over the past 70 years. Real estate developer Mort Zuckerman<\/a>\u2014who owned The Atlantic<\/b> from 1980\u20131999, the Daily News<\/b> from 1993\u20132017, and still owns US News & World Report<\/b>, which he bought in 1984\u2014was a harbinger of non-media money coming into the media sector.<\/p>\n

Wherever their money comes from, the new moguls\u2019 interest in buying up outlets is generally less the direct profit involved\u2014media profits are typically declining as the old local monopoly model erodes\u2014and more the power that comes with control of the public conversation. Being a latter-day Citizen Kane is a personal ego boost, to be sure, and provides a platform for an individual ideology\u2014whether it\u2019s Philip Anschutz\u2019s social conservatism or Omidyar\u2019s civil libertarianism.<\/p>\n

But it also can be a tool to advance more personal interests: Sheldon Adelson<\/a> is a fervent supporter of Israel and its Likud Party, but he bought a Las Vegas paper<\/a> when it was running critical coverage of a lawsuit that threatened to shut him out of the gambling business. Bezos\u2019 purchase of the Washington Post<\/strong> instantly made him the most powerful media figure in the nation\u2019s capital\u2014a handy position to be in when your company is seeking multi-billion-dollar government contracts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whatever the motivation, billionaires buying up media is another step toward oligarchy, as a handful of super-wealthy individuals assume power over crucial news outlets, both locally and nationally.<\/p>\n

Research: John McCullough<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Billionaire<\/b><\/td>\nMedia Owned<\/b><\/td>\nNet Worth<\/b><\/td>\nSource of Wealth<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jeff Bezos<\/td>\nWashington Post<\/b><\/td>\n$112 billion<\/td>\nAmazon<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Warren Buffett<\/td>\nBuffalo News<\/b>,
\nOmaha World-Herald<\/b>,
\nBusiness Wire,<\/b> etc.<\/td>\n		$84 billion<\/td>\nFinance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sheldon Adelson<\/td>\nLas Vegas Review-Journal<\/b><\/td>\n$39 billion<\/td>\nCasinos<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Laurene Powell Jobs<\/td>\nThe Atlantic<\/b><\/td>\n$19 billion<\/td>\nApple<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Philip Anschutz<\/td>\nWeekly Standard<\/b>, Washington Examiner<\/b>,
\nOklahoman<\/b>,
\nColorado Springs Gazette<\/b><\/td>\n		$13 billion<\/td>\nOil<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pierre Omidyar<\/td>\nThe Intercept<\/b><\/td>\n$11 billion<\/td>\neBay<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Patrick Soon-Shiong<\/td>\nLA Times<\/b>,
\nSan Diego Union-Tribune<\/b><\/td>\n		$8 billion<\/td>\nBiotech<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Marc Benioff<\/td>\nTime<\/b><\/td>\n$5 billion<\/td>\nTech<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mort Zuckerman<\/td>\nUS News & World Report<\/b><\/td>\n$2.8 billion<\/td>\nReal estate<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Glen Taylor<\/td>\nMinnesota Star-Tribune<\/b><\/td>\n$2.6 billion<\/td>\nPrinting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
John Henry<\/td>\nBoston Globe<\/b><\/td>\n$2.5 billion<\/td>\nFinance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Joe Mansueto<\/td>\nInc.<\/b>, Fast Company<\/b><\/td>\n$2.5 billion<\/td>\nFinance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


\nFeatured image: cc photo by James Duncan Davidson<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span>
\nThis piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Time owner Marc Benioff (cc photo: Fortune Global Forum) The announcement that Time magazine would be bought by software CEO Marc Benioff highlighted the growing trend of billionaires buying up media outlets. While media moguls have always been wealthy\u2014with press barons (Rupert Murdoch, Michael Bloomberg, Donald Newhouse, etc.) still well-represented on Forbes\u2019 running list […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-378141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}