My subscription to The Washington Post is very reasonable, and far less than subscriptions to The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and other newspapers. Both the Times and the Inquirer endorsed Kamala Harris Emhoff, whom I regard as a crackpot, socialist, and unChristian supporter of prenatal infanticide, but I didn’t cancel my subscriptions to them over their endorsements.

I doubt that anyone would have cared had the Post endorsed Mrs Emhoff, and I also doubt that newspaper endorsements mean much, especially now that their circulation continues to decline. Newspapers are, as I have previously called them, 18^th century technology.

We have previously noted how the butthurt left were cancelling subscriptions to the Post, but have apparently misunderestimated just how butthurt they have been! From National Public Radio:

Over 200,000 subscribers flee ‘Washington Post’ after Bezos blocks Harris endorsement

by David Folkenflik | Monday, October 28, 2024 | 3:27 PM EDT

The Washington Post has been rocked by a tidal wave of cancellations from digital subscribers and a series of resignations from columnists, as the paper grapples with the fallout of owner Jeff Bezos’s decision to block an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

More than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday, according to two people at the paper with knowledge of internal matters. Not all cancellations take effect immediately. Still, the figure represents about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well. The number of cancellations continued to grow Monday afternoon.

My subscription, $120 for one year, is pretty cheap, and some subscriptions might cost more. Out in the wilds of eastern Kentucky, I don’t get the print edition, though I suppose I could receive it, a day late, by mail. But, other than using it to start fires, why would I? But, if we assume that all 200,000 people who cancelled their subscriptions were paying the same $120 I have been, that works out to a loss of $24 million in revenue, and the newspaper lost $77 million in 2023.

As it happens, Mr Bezos, writing somewhat late in the game, defended his position:

The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media

The credibility gap can be bridged by independence.

by Jeff Bezos | Monday, October 28, 2024 | 7:26 PM EDT

In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.

Let me give an analogy. Voting machines must meet two requirements. They must count the vote accurately, and people must believe they count the vote accurately. The second requirement is distinct from and just as important as the first.

Likewise with newspapers. We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.

The perception of bias in the media has existed for a long time, which was how Rush Limbaugh got his start, way back in 1988: there was a real hunger for news from perspectives other than that of the credentialed media. Then, in 2004, CBS News used documents which were so obviously forged to try to attack President Bush just before the election that Powerline and Little Green Footballs were able to spot the forgery not by having the documents themselves, but via their images on the television screen.

The bias in the Post isn’t in the newspaper’s reporting of the truth, but what news was chosen to be reported. Conservative blogs and social media had been reporting on President Biden’s growing infirmity for years — William Teach was reporting on Sundowner Joe’s habit of ceasing campaigning early most days even before the 2020 election — but the credentialed media, which knew about it as well, hid the truth right up until it was on all of our television screens. The credentialed media deliberately concealed this story, because editors were so deathly afraid that it would hurt the Democrats in the election, and the American public could see that clearly.

The way to greater credibility is to have greater credibility.

When it comes to the appearance of conflict, I am not an ideal owner of The Post. Every day, somewhere, some Amazon executive or Blue Origin executive or someone from the other philanthropies and companies I own or invest in is meeting with government officials. I once wrote that The Post is a “complexifier” for me. It is, but it turns out I’m also a complexifier for The Post.

If Mr Bezos weren’t the owner, who would be? The Post lost $77 million last year, and while Mr Bezos is trying to get it closer to at least breaking even — Lauren Sanchez needs more bling! — newspapers need owners with such deep pockets that they can keep this 18^th century technology afloat.

Jeff Bezos bought the Post when the Graham family could no longer afford it; if he hadn’t, who would have rescued the newspaper? Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the Los Angeles Times when it needed to be rescued, but, Alas!, Dr Soon-Shiong is worth only $6 billion, and he’s been finding the Times’ losses eating too deeply into his wallet.

I’ve said many times that if I had Elon Musk’s money, I’d buy, and fix, The Philadelphia Inquirer, which is harder-left biased than even the Post. But I wouldn’t but the Inky if I had just Dr Soon-Shiong’s money; the losses would eventually make a millionaire out of a billionaire.
__________________________________
Update! 5:38 PM EDT

David Folkenflik tweeted:

The number of cancellations since Friday’s revelation now exceeds 250,000, NPR can report.

That represents approximately 10 percent of all paid circulation.

Assuming that the low, $120 per year subscription that I have is the base number, $120 x 250,000 = $30,000,000 in losses.