Amazon.com Inc. AMZN Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is buying the Washington Post WPO +1.56% for $250 million in an out-of-the-blue deal that captures the newspaper industry's economic decline and the shift of power from old-media to Silicon Valley.

亚马逊公司(Amazon.com Inc., AMZN)首席执行长贝索斯(Jeff Bezos)将斥资2.50亿美元收购《华盛顿邮报》(Washington Post)，这一出人意料的交易抓住了当下报业效益下滑以及权力从旧媒体向硅谷转移的趋势。

The sale puts one of the most famous newspapers in the U.S.─the publication credited with breaking the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation almost 40 years ago─in the hands of a Web businessman who rose to prominence only in the past 20 years.

交易将把美国最知名的报纸之一交到一位过去二十年才扬名立万的网络商人手中。近四十年前，《华盛顿邮报》曝光了水门事件，最终导致尼克松(Nixon)总统辞职。

It comes as many newspapers are struggling to survive. Print newspaper ad revenues fell 55% between 2007 and 2012, according to the Newspaper Association of America, as advertisers and readers have defected to the Web. Some newspapers have been forced to slash costs and in some cases file for bankruptcy. Just three days ago the New York Times Co. NYT -0.42% sold the Boston Globe for $70 million, having paid $1.1 billion for it in 1993.

现时，许多报纸生存艰难。据美国报业协会(Newspaper Association of America)的数据，随着广告客户和读者转向网络，2007年至2012年间纸质报纸的广告收入下滑了55%。一些报纸被迫削减成本，有些甚至申请破产。三天前，纽约时报公司(New York Times Co.)刚刚以7,000万美元的价格将《波士顿环球报》(Boston Globe)出售，1993年收购该报时纽约时报公司花了11亿美元。

The Internet is 'transforming almost every element of the news business,' Mr. Bezos said in a letter to Washington Post employees. '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,' Mr. Bezos wrote.

贝索斯在致《华盛顿邮报》员工的一封信中说，互联网正在改变新闻业务的几乎每一个元素。没有现成的道路摆在面前，要走出一条新路并非易事。我们必须创新，必须大胆尝试。

He added that he won't be involved in the day-to-day management of the newspaper.

他还表示，不会干涉《华盛顿邮报》的日常管理。

In an interview Monday, Washington Post Co. Chairman Don E. Graham praised Mr. Bezos's track record as a well-connected industry innovator with the patience to make difficult businesses profitable, but he acknowledged challenges.

华盛顿邮报公司董事长格雷厄姆(Don E. Graham)周一接受了采访，称赞贝索斯是一位人脉很广的行业创新者，有十足的耐心让困难的业务实现盈利。但他也承认前路充满挑战。

'Jeff is a business person, not a magician. He is going to have to work as hard as everyone else to figure out the problem of news. But he brings a lot,' Mr. Graham said.

格雷厄姆说，贝索斯是个商人，不是魔术师，他必须像其他人一样非常努力地去解决新闻行业的问题。但他带来了很多东西。

Early this year, Mr. Graham brought in investment bank Allen & Co. to begin looking for someone to buy the Washington Post. The decision to sell had come after months of reflection among the company's board members, said one person familiar with the situation. Mr. Graham 'couldn't see how to grow [the paper] and began to wonder if there was a better owner,' the person said.

今年年初，格雷厄姆聘请了投行Allen & Co.开始为《华盛顿邮报》寻找买家。据一位知情人士称，华盛顿邮报公司的董事在进行了几个月的思考之后才做出了出售决定。这位人士透露，格雷厄姆不知道如何才能让《华盛顿邮报》发展壮大，因此开始考虑是否能找到一位更好的所有者来帮助该报发展。

Mr. Graham spoke with many prospects directly, drawing on his extensive network in Silicon Valley. Mr. Graham, who has been an adviser to Facebook Inc. FB +2.99% chief Mark Zuckerberg, has spent years building relationships with technology titans, including Mr. Bezos, who had helped him make important hires such as Amazon veteran Vijay Ravindran, the head of WaPo Labs.

格雷厄姆运用他在硅谷的广泛人脉，直接与许多潜在买家接触。作为Facebook Inc.首席执行长扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)的顾问，格雷厄姆多年来一直在与科技行业的巨头建立关系，其中就包括贝索斯。贝索斯曾帮助格雷厄姆招募了许多重要人才，比如亚马逊的资深高管拉文德兰(Vijay Ravindran)后来就成了华盛顿邮报公司数字创新部门WaPo Labs的掌门人。

Mr. Graham personally reached out to Mr. Bezos early, said a person with direct knowledge of the deal. Initially Mr. Bezos held back, citing a lack of time to properly deal with a transaction. Then, in July, Mr. Bezos wrote an email to Mr. Graham saying, 'If you're interested, I am,' said another person familiar with the situation.

一位知情人士透露，格雷厄姆很早就在私下里与贝索斯进行了接触。贝索斯最初没有答应，理由是他缺少时间来进行这样一桩交易。另一位知情人士称，后来在7月份的时候贝索斯给格雷厄姆写了一封邮件，说如果格雷厄姆有兴趣的话，他也有意做这样一笔交易。

Mr. Bezos, who launched Amazon in 1995, is worth about $26 billion, courtesy of his stake in the e-commerce giant. As part of a planned stock sale, Mr. Bezos took in $185 million this month, representing less than 1% of his holdings. Forbes ranked him as the 19th most-wealthy man in the world, just ahead of Google Inc.'s Larry Page.

贝索斯1995年成立了亚马逊公司，以他在亚马逊的持股估算，贝索斯目前的身家约为260亿美元。作为亚马逊股票出售计划的一部分，贝索斯本月通过抛售公司股票套现1.85亿美元，抛售的数量不到他持股总量的1%。在福布斯(Forbes)全球富豪排行榜上，贝索斯名列第十九位，谷歌(Google Inc.)首席执行长拉里·佩奇(Google Inc.)排名在其之后。

Mr. Bezos wasn't available for an interview.

记者未能联系到贝索斯接受采访。

In discussing a possible deal, Messrs. Graham and Bezos had two three-hour conversations in person in Sun Valley, Idaho, before Mr. Bezos sent a personal team to Washington, D.C. At the time, the company was talking to other suitors, a small collection of individuals, like Mr. Bezos, and strategic companies, said people familiar with the talks.

格雷厄姆和贝索斯曾在爱荷华州的太阳谷进行过两次私人会晤，讨论可能的交易，每次会谈的时间都达到三小时。之后，贝索斯派了一个私人团队前往华盛顿。知情人士称，当时华盛顿邮报公司也在与其他潜在买家进行谈判，其中一些是像贝索斯一样的个人投资者，另外一些是战略公司。

Post Co. will change its name after the sale, although a new name hasn't been disclosed.

华盛顿邮报公司在交易完成后将更名，但新名字尚未披露。

The company, which will keep its interests in education and television, will retain its real estate, and a few journalism properties, including the website Slate.com and Foreign Policy magazine. Recently, Post Co. has diversified with small acquisitions in health-care and furnace parts.

该公司将保留其房地产和一些传媒资产，包括Slate.com网站和《外交政策》(Foreign Policy)杂志，并且仍将从事教育和电视业务。最近该公司通过在医疗和锅炉部件行业的小规模并购交易实现业务多元化。

Over the past decade, the Post's daily newspaper circulation has shrunk to 472,000 in 2012 from 769,000 in 2002. In the company's newspapers division, revenue fell 31% to $582 million during the same period, according to regulatory filings. Meanwhile, operating income over the decade went from a profit of $109 million in 2002 to a loss of $53.7 million in 2012.

过去10年间，该公司的日报纸发行量从2002年的76.9万份减少至2012年的47.2万份。据提交给监管部门的文件显示，该公司的报纸部门同期收入下降了31%，至5.82亿美元。同期，经营业绩从2002年实现利润1.09亿美元，到2012年亏损5,370万美元。

To combat the losses, the Post has gone through rounds of cost cuts. This year, it replaced Marcus Brauchli as editor of the paper with Martin Baron.

为了应对亏损局面，该公司采取了数轮成本削减行动。今年，报纸执行编辑由布劳克利(Marcus Brauchli)换成了巴伦(Martin Baron)。

The Post has already sold Newsweek in 2010 after a sharp decline at the newsweekly. While the flagship newspaper was only a small part of the company─which also owns cable systems, TV stations and the Kaplan education business─a slump at Kaplan had added to financial stresses on the company.

该公司在2010年就已出售了经营状况急剧恶化的《新闻周刊》(Newsweek)。该公司还有有线系统、电视台和Kaplan教育业务，《华盛顿邮报》只是其一小块业务，但是教育业务Kaplan的滑坡加剧了其财务危机。

Mr. Graham, whose grandfather Eugene Meyer acquired the paper in 1933, said in a letter to staff that 'as the newspaper business continued to bring up questions to which we have no answers,' he and Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, his niece, had begun 'to ask ourselves if our small public company was still the best home for the newspaper.'

格雷厄姆致信员工说，由于该报纸业务持续产生解决不了的问题，他与《华盛顿邮报》发行人韦茅斯（Katharine Weymouth，格雷厄姆的外甥女）开始自问这家小型上市公司还是不是这份报纸的最佳东家？《华盛顿邮报》是格雷厄姆的祖父梅耶(Eugene Meyer)在1933年收购的。

The Post's revenue had 'declined seven years in a row,' he noted, adding that 'our answer had to be cost cuts and we knew there was a limit to that.'

他说，该报的收入已经连续七年下降，只能削减成本予以应对，而他们知道这是有边界的。

Mr. Graham insisted that Mr. Bezos keep Ms. Weymouth on as CEO and publisher, as well as Stephen P. Hills, president and general manager.

格雷厄姆坚持要求贝索斯让韦茅斯继续担任首席执行长兼发行人，以及让希尔斯(Stephen P. Hills)担任董事长兼总经理。

In a separate letter, Ms. Weymouth described today as one 'my family and I never expected to come.'

韦茅斯在另一封信说，这一天是我和我的家族从未料到的。

Mr. Bezos had previously invested in the business news website Business Insider.

贝索斯此前投资了商业新闻网站Business Insider。

For Mr. Graham, Mr. Bezos was a strong candidate because of his apparent genuine interest in journalism, his strength in building technology products, and his willingness to pay an appropriate price for the paper, said a person familiar with the situation. Mr. Graham and the board also appreciated Mr. Bezos's past help in finding strong employees for the Washington Post, such as Mr. Ravindran, seeing it as a sign that he had a good understanding of the type of people the Post needed.

据一位知情人士称，对于格雷厄姆而言，贝索斯是一个很有竞争力的候选人，因为他表现出了对新闻行业的真挚兴趣，而且他有打造高科技产品的能力，以及为这份报纸支付一个合适价格的意愿。格雷厄姆和董事会还感激贝索斯过去在为该报寻找得力员工（例如拉文德兰）方面提供的帮助，将这视为他非常了解该报所需人才类型的迹象。

One media executive who knows Mr. Bezos said the Amazon chief likely sees the acquisition as an opportunity to further develop the Washington Post's digital strategy in a bid to show how old and new journalism can intersect.

一位认识贝索斯的媒体高管说，这位亚马逊老板可能将此次收购视为进一步发展《华盛顿邮报》数字战略、以显示新老媒体可以融会贯通的机会。

'He still sees a role for journalism, and it's an extension of his interest in books and writers,' said this person. 'It also gives him a pulpit in Washington. He might see that as a plus, but it could also prove a minus based on the editorial positions the newspaper takes.'

该人士说，贝索斯仍认为新闻行业是有生存空间的，而且这是他对图书及作家的兴趣的延伸；此外，这笔交易也为他在华盛顿提供了一个发言平台；贝索斯可能将这视为一个附加的有利因素，但是从该报的编辑立场来看，这也可能最终证明是个不利因素。

A large part of the negotiation for the sale happened in private conversations between Mr. Graham and Mr. Bezos. However, the Washington Post board also oversaw the price and structure of the deal, said people familiar with the situation.

据知情人士透露，这宗交易的谈判大部分是发生在格雷厄姆和贝索斯的私密磋商之中。但是《华盛顿邮报》董事会也对交易价格及结构进行了监督。

Directors gave final approval to the sale during a conference call Monday morning.

董事们在周一早间的一个电话会议上最终批准了这笔交易。

Mr. Graham, for his part, will continue to invest in other companies, looking at 'long-term focused companies with...strong management that we can keep,' the person said.

该人士透露，格雷厄姆个人将继续投资于其他公司，关注“着眼长远且原管理团队强大、能够保留的公司”。

In addition to the Post, Mr. Bezos will get ownership of the Express newspaper, the Gazette Newspapers, Southern Maryland Newspapers, Fairfax County Times, El Tiempo Latino and Greater Washington Publishing.

除了《华盛顿邮报》外，贝索斯还将获得《Express》、 《Gazette Newspapers》、《Southern Maryland Newspapers》、《Fairfax County Times》、《El Tiempo Latino》和《Greater Washington Publishing》的所有权。