NEW YORK: The last few days have seen a flurry of purchases of ailing print journalism flagships. The Boston Globe was sold. Newsweek changed hands again. And, most spectacular of all, the Washington Post was bought for chump change. Meanwhile, the Tribune group - publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune - is readying itself for sale.
There is nothing new about rich men buying newspapers. The surest way to enhance personal prestige is to become a press magnate. As Rupert Murdoch's second wife Anna replied when asked how she was enjoying Beverly Hills, "It's not the same if you don't own the paper." But something more interesting is going on than social climbing. New technology billionaires are picking up old money properties for a song. Online is moving in on hard copy. This is not evolution, it is a revolution.
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