Hannah Rosen

But you're focused on Bezos.

So initially, you were talking about ideological factors, like a desire to curry favor with Trump, or at least not to irritate Trump.

It sounds like now you're talking about more sort of financial reasons.

I mean, that suggests that, what, he's a bad businessman?

Like, we don't think of Jeff Bezos as a bad businessman.

Like, what does that suggest?

So this is what, when people say a death spiral for news outlets, where you have a shrinking business leads to a downsized product, which leads to more shrinking business.

Like, is that where the post is now?

After the break, should people have really expected anything better from Bezos?

And should all those people really have canceled their subscriptions?

That's in a minute.

In retrospect, now that I hear you talk and see how important that moment was when hundreds of thousands of people canceled their subscription,

It was an act of protest.

But now I feel like were they protesting against the right thing and for the right place?

It's like shooting yourself in your civic participation foot.

It just doesn't seem like they were aiming at the right target there.

And do you think that's a reasonable expectation you're making of Jeff Bezos?

Like, he's a businessman.

And so why should we expect him to behave differently than the many negligent owners of many newspapers who I'm sure you've tracked over the last decade plus?

So it seems like the Post was struggling when Bezos bought it.