Jeff Bezos Ignites Reusable Rocket and Some Multi-Industry Debates

Amazon founder, Washington Post owner and space explorer Jeff Bezos was on CBS This Morning to talk about the successful launch and landing of Blue Origin's reusable rocket, a first. Blue Origin is the company Bezos founded for commercial space flight, but we're not here to talk about rich men and space exploration. We'd rather talk rich men and the newspapers they own, and the CBS This Morning crew got in a few questions on Bezos' intentions for the Post. In response to a question from Charlie Rose about what he wants to do with the paper, Bezos responded, "We're working on becoming the new paper of record. We've always been a local paper, and just this month the Washington Post passed the New York Times in terms of number of viewers online. This is a gigantic accomplishment for the Post team. We're just going to keep after that." Back in spaceship-land, Bezos' accomplishment seems to have ignited a rivalry with fellow space entrepreneur Elon Musk, and in the newspaper world, his comments caught the attention of some New York Times staffers: Hmm, what's missing from this description? Ah yes: willingness to pay. https://t.co/1keEKsziS0— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) November 24, 2015 @DLeonhardt are you saying that WaPo is buying traffic and that the NYT doesn't?— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) November 24, 2015 @felixsalmon Oh, not at all. Just noting my amusement at comparing demand for a free product and a non-free one.— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) November 24, 2015 @DLeonhardt @felixsalmon it now comes automatically to millions with with a Prime account, which games the numbers.— Quentin Hardy (@qhardy) November 24, 2015 @felixsalmon And to be clear, I'm a WaPo fan and home subscriber! That just happened to be a silly boast. (Watch interview for fun juxtap.)— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) November 24, 2015 A few weeks ago, our colleague Richard Horgan at sister pub FishbowlNY parsed WaPo's announcement, which Bezos echoed, that the Post had bested the Times in online uniques for October, according to comScore. This figure was correct, Horgan found, but only as it applied to U.S. views. "The paper’s international Web traffic is incredibly robust," he wrote about the NYT, "especially when an event like the Paris terrorist attacks is dominating the news headlines. On the global unique visitors front, the Times likely still outpaces the Post." For Rose's other question, he asked Bezos to "define what you think the Washington Post is today." Bezos' response seems to indicate that there may be more investigative work in the Post's future: The Washington Post today is a bright light that helps shine light on all of our institutions in this country and the political process. We know that some of the things that have happened in the past--we wish we had known more about our political leaders and our other powerful institutions in this country, and that's been the role of the Post for a long time, and we're just going to keep doing that. We're doing it now with more resources, and we have a lot of patience for that job. Watch the full clip below: View More: Technology News|Live News|More News Videos

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Jeff Bezos Ignites Reusable Rocket and Some Multi-Industry Debates

Elon Musk, David Leonhardt, all in a day's

Corinne Grinapol

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Corinne Grinapol