Jeff Bezos is now not relentlessly targeted on buyer satisfaction

The fallout from the non-endorsement of Kamala Harris at The Washington Publish is right here: greater than 200,000 canceled subscriptions, NPR studies. That is about 8 p.c of the paid subscriber base, and the variety of cancellations continues to be rising.

To place that in perspective, in an Oct. fifteenth story about Publish CEO Will Lewis’s technique to get extra paying subscribers, The New York Instances reported that the Publish had added 4,000 subscribers because the starting of 2024 by way of September. Like, I’m really flabbergasted: that’s fifty instances as many cancellations in a single weekend as The Publish earned within the higher a part of a yr.

Now, there have been a number of studies at this level — from NPR, The Columbia Journalism Overview, and The Washington Publish itself — that the decision to cease endorsing candidates got here from Jeff Bezos himself. The identical day as Lewis’s weird announcement of The Publish’s non-endorsement, executives from Bezos’s area firm, Blue Origin, met with presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Lewis would love us to go away poor Bezos alone. Bezos “was not despatched, didn’t learn and didn’t opine on any draft,” the CEO instructed CNN within the form of assertion that we within the enterprise know as a non-denial denial. That’s — it’s a fastidiously worded recitation of issues Bezos did not do. It doesn’t deny that Bezos made the decision for no endorsement. And right this moment, The New York Instances’Ben Mullin reported that Bezos had expressed reservations a few presidential endorsement as early as September.

The blowback has been so intense that Bezos has taken it upon himself to clarify the choice in The Washington Publish. “I might additionally prefer to be clear that no quid professional quo of any variety is at work right here,” he wrote. As a substitute, he claimed that it was “a principled resolution.” That it was introduced so near the election was just a bit whoopsy-doodle that Bezos claims was “insufficient planning.”

To again the choice, Bezos writes in regards to the nosedive belief in media has taken. It’s true that fewer folks belief the media than earlier than, however which will even be as a result of folks don’t essentially know as many reporters anymore. Within the days of wholesome native journalism, reporters have been your pals and neighbors, regular folks that you just interacted with regularly on the grocery retailer. That’s now not the case; journalists are skinny on the bottom, and wildly outnumbered by PR folks. Fox Information, particularly, has gone out of its approach to sow mistrust. Dumping on different publications is a major technique for drumming up Substack subscriptions — simply ask Bari Weiss.

However I don’t count on the founding father of Amazon to know this historical past any greater than I count on him to grasp the best way to function The Publish’s CMS. And in addition to, the belief in media factor is a distraction. The op-ed is a transparent try at harm management — an try to cease the bleeding. It’s too little, and too late.

I suppose I ought to point out the assorted authorities contracts Bezos’s different companies have — amongst them, Amazon’s $10 billion NSA contract and Blue Origin’s $3.4 billion NASA contract. Trump has beforehand focused Bezos for The Washington Publish’s reporting. A columnist who stop the Publish over the choice, Robert Kagan, instructed CNN, “That is clearly an effort by Jeff Bezos to curry favor with Donald Trump within the anticipation of his potential victory.” Kagan pointed to the enterprise contracts as motivation.

Bezos would additionally like us to go away poor Bezos alone. “I might additionally prefer to be clear that no quid professional quo of any variety is at work right here,” he wrote. “Dave Limp, the chief government of one in all my firms, Blue Origin, met with former president Donald Trump on the day of our announcement. I sighed after I discovered, as a result of I knew it might present ammunition to those that want to body this as something aside from a principled resolution. However the truth is, I didn’t know in regards to the assembly beforehand.”

Bezos made his bones at Amazon by relentlessly specializing in buyer satisfaction. Time and again, he instructed folks to deal with making clients joyful. Right here’s a enjoyable quote from his 2016 letter to shareholders:

There are numerous methods to heart a enterprise. You may be competitor targeted, you may be product targeted, you may be expertise targeted, you may be enterprise mannequin targeted, and there are extra. However in my opinion, obsessive buyer focus is by far essentially the most protecting of day one vitality.

That’s in all probability good recommendation for working a enterprise, and it seems to be recommendation neither Lewis nor Bezos himself took. By spiking a presidential endorsement, Bezos has created the looks of a battle of curiosity — and in journalism, that’s as unhealthy as an precise battle of curiosity as a result of now you’ve misplaced the belief of your viewers.

(Lewis, although, isn’t any stranger to journalism, since he does have expertise as an editor. Nevertheless, a few of that have is being investigated within the Sunday Instances cellphone hacking scandal, so perhaps he’s not one of the best particular person to seek the advice of on these issues.)

Nonetheless, if there may be one factor Bezos is understood for, it’s his cutthroat method to capitalism. And right here, he has failed at that, too. The shoppers have been talking very clearly: NPR studies that three of the highest 10 tales on the Publish’s website Sunday have been from staffers pissed off in regards to the killed endorsement. Probably the most-read was by the paper’s beloved humorist Alexandra Petri: “It has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president.” After I checked The Publish’s website once more right this moment, the highest two tales have been in regards to the controversy.

“Now greater than ever the world wants a reputable, trusted, impartial voice,” Bezos writes. That is true. It’s additionally why he shouldn’t have employed Will Lewis within the first place. A man concerned in a cellphone hacking scandal is solely not credible. Between Lewis and the pulled endorsement, it’s clear Bezos doesn’t perceive his clients. I ponder if he even understands credibility.

The blowback is greater than The Publish. One factor our tech overlords have been very sad about recently has been the federal government’s renewed method to antitrust below Joe Biden. What the Publish scandal highlights — in addition to Will Lewis’s incompetence — is precisely what number of companies Bezos owns, and the way conflicts of curiosity might come up. He has skillfully drawn consideration from regular residents to overreaches of energy in enterprise. There’s, after all, an answer: breaking apart companies which have gotten too huge.

Nicely, I suppose that’s a lesson for us all. That is what occurs while you deal with your self and never on the shoppers. Not solely do they go away you in droves, however they might really revile you adequate to be politically harmful.

Replace, October twenty eighth: Provides Jeff Bezos’s Washington Publish op-ed explaining why he selected to shoot his personal newspaper within the foot.