HELPING HAND

Tech Industry Bails Out Struggling Print

Jeff Bezos isn’t the first titan to take pity.

The cliché of technology mercilessly stomping on the print industry turns out to be not so true—in fact, tycoons who once appeared to be the face of the ruination of print are coming to the aid of struggling print world. Exhibit A: Jeff Bezos’s purchase of The Washington Post for $250 million. But he’s hardly the first—Google began financing journalism through fellowships last year, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark (perhaps making penance for decimating those classifieds) helped finance a book on ethics for journalists, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes bought The New Republic, and finally, Steve Jobs went out of his way to give newspapers a platform on the iPad. Of course, that hasn’t stopped executives on the business side of the print industry from being suspicious of the technology companies reaching out.