Susan P Crawford, Columnist

Jeff Bezos Can Make Newspapers Profitable

August 6, 2013 at 12:40 PM EDT

Susan Crawford, the John A. Reilly visiting professor in intellectual property at Harvard Law School, is the author of "Captive Audience." Her book "The Responsive City," with co-author Stephen Goldsmith, will be published in September. In 2009, Susan Crawford served as special assistant to President Barack Obama for science, technology, and innovation policy. She is a former law partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale). She is the founder of OneWeb Day, a global Earth Day for the Internet held each Sept. 22. She earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, and a law degree from Yale University.

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I was in the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building when I learned yesterday that Jeff Bezos had bought the Washington Post. Looking around the majestic Rose Reading Room, recently renovated with the help of $100 million from Schwarzman, I thought, this is a moment I’m going to remember.

The business model of a traditional newspaper, like that of a library, is crumbling. Both institutions now require the backing of billionaires.

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