Amazon's Jeff Bezos buys The Washington Post for $250million The sale ends the Graham family's eight-decade ownership of the Post, which is one of the oldest newspapers in the country News of the sale comes two days after The Boston Globe was sold for $70 million Bezos, 49, has an estimated net worth of $25.2 billion The sale came as a complete shock to employees of the Post Bezos told Post employees that the 'values' of the newsroom will stay the same but there will be a renewed focus on innovative ways to cover the news going forward Katherine Weymouth will stay on as CEO of Washington Post Media and publisher of The Washington Post By Meghan Keneally and Hayley Peterson The Washington Post has been bought by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for $250 million, ending the Graham family's eight-decade ownership of the newspaper. The shocking move was announced during an all-staff meeting Monday afternoon, just two days after it was revealed that The New York Times Company had sold The Boston Globe to Red Sox owner John Henry for $70 million. 'Every member of my family started out with the same emotion - shock - in even thinking about' selling the storied newspaper, Washington Post Co. CEO Donald Graham said. He said the Post's paper and website, including other publishing businesses such as the Express newspaper and The Gazette Newspapers, were sold to Bezos after conversations with more than a dozen possible buyers. This is the front page of the Washington Post for Tuesday, August 6, the morning after it was revealed that the newspaper would be sold to Jeff Bezos Newspaper baron? Jeff Bezos has bought The Washington Post for $250million out of his personal fortune Jeff Bezos, 49, is the founder of Amazon, the world's largest internet retailer, which reported sales of $61 billion in 2012. He has an estimated net worth of $25.2 billion, making him the 19th richest man in the world, according to Forbes. 'But when the idea of a transaction with Jeff Bezos came up, it altered my feelings,' he added. 'The Post could have survived under the company's ownership and been profitable for the foreseeable future. But we wanted to do more than survive. 'I'm not saying this guarantees success but it gives us a much greater chance of success.' Bezos, 49, has an estimated net worth of $25.2 billion, making him the 19th richest man in the world, according to Forbes. He is the founder of Amazon, the world's largest internet retailer, which reported sales of $61 billion in 2012. This is Bezos' second investment in the news business in the last several months. He recently invested several million dollars (the exact amount is not known, though it was reportedly under $5 million) in Business Insider, a five-year-old online news operation that focuses its coverage on the tech and finance industries. Brokering a deal: Jeff Bezos (left) talks with Donald Graham (right), CEO of the Washington Post Company, as they arrive for lunch at the annual Allen and Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho on July 10, 2013. The Post hired Allen and Co. to broker its sale Graham (right) said he talked to 'no more than a dozen' other potential buyers before settling on Bezos (left) following a meeting in Sun Valley 1877: The Washington Post is founded by Democrat Stilson Hutchins with a starting circulation of 10,000. 1933: After changing hands twice, the paper is sold in a public bankruptcy auction to Eugene Meyer, a California financier. 1946: Meyer is succeeded by his daughter's husband, Philip L. Graham. 1947: The Washington Post Co. is incorporated with Philip Graham named president. 1963: Katherine Graham becomes president of the company following the death of her husband. 1971: The Post begins publishing a series of stories based on the Pentagon papers. 1972: The paper breaks the Watergate scandal, leading to former President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. 1979: Donald Graham, Katherine Graham's son, becomes publisher. 1996: WashingtonPost.com is launched. 2000: Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr. is named publisher and chief executive officer of The Washington Post. Donald Graham becomes chairman. 2003: The Express, a free commuter newspaper, is launched. 2008: Katharine Weymouth is named chief executive officer of Washington Post Media and publisher of The Washington Post. Marcus Brauchli is named executive editor. 2013: Martin Baron suceeds Marcus Brauchli as executive editor. The Post is purchased by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The Post devoted its front page Tuesday to news of the sale under the headline 'Grahams to sell The Post.' The main photo on the page shows Graham breaking the news to employees. Graham started talking to Bezos about the deal less than a month ago in Sun Valley at an annual conference held by Allen & Company, a boutique investment bank based in New York. Graham had secretly hired the bank earlier this year to broker the sale. He told Reuters that he talked to 'no more than a dozen' other potential buyers before settling on Bezos. 'I named a price and Jeff agreed to pay it,' Graham told Reuters. Katharine Weymouth, Graham's niece, will stay on as CEO of Washington Post Media and publisher of The Washington Post. 'This is a day that my family and I never expected to come,' she wrote in a letter to employees. The Washington Post Company is selling the newspaper that it has owned and nurtured for eight decades. The sale comes as a shock to many, as only a few people were said to have known before the finalized announcement came Monday. Immediately after staffers were informed, the paper published a lengthy article about the sale on its website where it quoted Bezos as saying that he plans to keep much of the newspaper's structure intact. The article described the sale as 'sudden and stunning.' 'Few people were aware that a sale was in the works for the paper, whose reporters have broken such stories as the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate scandals and disclosures about the National Security Administration's surveillance program in May,' the article noted. For much of the past decade, however, the paper has been unable to escape the financial turmoil that has engulfed newspapers and other "legacy" media organizations. Bezos, who is based in Seattle, will not be moving to D.C. to oversee the transition. 'I have a fantastic day job that I love,' he said in the article. In a letter to Post employees, Bezos said he expects many of them to be apprehensive about the change. Breaking the news: Katharine Weymouth, publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, left, and Donald Graham address employees about the sale on Monday Katharine Weymoth (pictured) is Don Graham's neice, who works as the Washington Post's publisher and chief executive Institution: The Washington Post has been owned by the Graham family for eight decades, and the announcement of the sale on Monday came as a shock to many 'The values of The Post do not need changing,' he wrote. But 'there will of course be change at The post over the coming years. That's essential and would have happened with or without new ownership.' 'The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business,' he added, explaining that a focus of the paper moving forward will be innovation. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about - government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports - and working backwards from there. I'm excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention,' he wrote. In this March 18, 1954 photo, then-Washington Post Co. president Philip L. Graham, left, and Eugene Meyer, who bought the Post in 1933, look at the first Washington Post Times Herald In this May 22, 2001, file photo, CNN chairman and CEO Tom Johnson, left, joined at right by retired Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee talk with Katharine Graham, then-chairman of the Washington Post Company Better days: In this Nov. 28, 1966, file photo, writer Truman Capote, left, and then-president of the Washington Post Co. Katharine Graham arrive at Capote's Black and White Ball at the Plaza Hotel in New York Many people, especially journalists, balked at price of the transaction in comparison to other companies' sales, such as Huffington Post, which sold to AOL in 2011 for $315 million, and Tumblr and Instagram, which have each sold for $1 billion. 'The Washington Post, one of our country's greatest newspapers, just sold for 1/4 the price of Tumblr,' lamented reporter Casey Newton. Added Abel Lin: 'Amazon's Jeff Bezos just bought The Washington Post for $250 million, roughly 1/3 of Snapchat's valuation. #why,' tweeted Abel Lin. 'Haha, The Washington Post is worth less than 1/6th of the Redskins,' sniped @DanSnyderCares. Bezos told employees of the Post that 'The values of The Post do not need changing...[but] 'there will of course be change at The post over the coming years.' Below is the full text of letter that Jeff Bezos wrote the the employees of the Washington Post: To the employees of The Washington Post: You'll have heard the news, and many of you will greet it with a degree of apprehension. When a single family owns a company for many decades, and when that family acts for all those decades in good faith, in a principled manner, in good times and in rough times, as stewards of important values - when that family has done such a good job - it is only natural to worry about change. So, let me start with something critical. The values of The Post do not need changing. The paper's duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners. We will continue to follow the truth wherever it leads, and we'll work hard not to make mistakes. When we do, we will own up to them quickly and completely. I won't be leading The Washington Post day-to-day. I am happily living in 'the other Washington' where I have a day job that I love. Besides that, The Post already has an excellent leadership team that knows much more about the news business than I do, and I'm extremely grateful to them for agreeing to stay on. There will of course be change at The Post over the coming years. That's essential and would have happened with or without new ownership. The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. I'm excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention. Journalism plays a critical role in a free society, and The Washington Post -- as the hometown paper of the capital city of the United States -- is especially important. I would highlight two kinds of courage the Grahams have shown as owners that I hope to channel. The first is the courage to say wait, be sure, slow down, get another source. Real people and their reputations, livelihoods and families are at stake. The second is the courage to say follow the story, no matter the cost. While I hope no one ever threatens to put one of my body parts through a wringer, if they do, thanks to Mrs. Graham's example, I'll be ready. I want to say one last thing that's really not about the paper or this change in ownership. I have had the great pleasure of getting to know Don very well over the last ten plus years. I do not know a finer man. Sincerely, Jeff Bezos