Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

So Much Privilege, So Much Self Pity

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Bacon’s crocodile tears

Sometimes schadenfreude is the best freude of all.

It seems that the Democracy-dies-in-darkness people are feeling a little darkness themselves. Since 2020, The Washington Post has experienced a 50% decline in its audience, and the enterprise lost $70 million last year. Seventy-million dollars? Hey, that’s real money even to WaPo owner Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men.

Now the media enterprise, which somehow still manages to dominate the news cycle in its backyard market of Virginia, is tearing itself apart in controversy over the departure of executive editor Sally Buzbee. Publisher and CEO Will Lewis has told staff that the losses cannot continue, changes need to take place, and employees need to get with the program.

“The tone was blaming the newsroom for the losses — like that was why there has to be a new team,” a source complained to the New York Post. “You can imagine how people feel about that.”

You can read about all the pissing and moaning in the New York Post article.

It’s not clear if the fact that the enterprise is losing $70 million a year — out of an estimated $310 million in revenue, according to Zippia — has penetrated the thinking of the complainers.

Getting paid by one of the world’s richest men is the epitome of privilege. No other mature business enterprise in the country can afford for long to lose 22 cents on every dollar it generates. These elitists think they perform a job so crucial, so noble, so world-saving, that someone else should pay them to continue doing what they’re doing without any sacrifice on their part.

Hah. Try being a journalist without a sugar daddy. Start your own blog or sign up with Substack and see what life is like.

(My apologies to the Post reporters who actually do good work. But I’ll bet my bottom dollar that they’re not the ones complaining.)

— JAB

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38 responses to “So Much Privilege, So Much Self Pity”

  1. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Speaking of privilege… If you are one of the lucky Americans who wound up with a Health Savings Account then this might be of interest to you. If you can afford to pay your current expenses out of pocket then book the expense in your HSA but leave yourself “unreimbursed”. That is fill out the claims, save the documents, e.g., receipts, but don’t take the money out of the HSA. This includes your Medicare premium. It is reimbursable. Your supplement insurance is NOT.

    Claims can remain dormant FOREVER. You can then withdraw the money when you need it TAX FREE. Should you die first, your estate gets that money tax free. Any balance above the claim will be taxed at income tax rates.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      You're a tricky guy… but HSA is for working folks?

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        You keep the HSA, but can no longer contribute without earned income or when you go on Medicare

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          so you can't fund your Medicare premiums indefinitely ?

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Depends on how much was in your HSA when you retired. The average retiree pays $175(?) monthly for Medicare. There about. Assuming you get 4% return on $50K, then yes, indefinitely. Since you’re not going to actually take the money, but leave it invested until years from now (or your heirs) then something around $30K will pay for Medicare for your lifetime.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            I thought HSA contribs were capped… how much can you put in annually? 6k or so? I admit, have
            never thought of that. Yes, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) can be used to pay for some Medicare expenses, including premiums for Part A, Part B, Part C (Medicare Advantage), and Part D prescription drug coverage. HSAs can also be used to pay for deductibles, copays, and coinsurance for all parts of Medicare. However, HSA funds cannot be used to pay for supplemental (Medigap) policy premiums.

          3. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Yes, they’re capped and it has to be earned income. My company went HSA in 2002, or so. The company also contributed enough to cover my deductibles. When I retired I had about 40K in it and nowhere to spend it. I used it as self-insured dental and vision, couple hundred per year. It’s up to $60K now, but I have 7 years of unreimbursed claims for our (spouse too) Medicare premiums. So, roughly 1/3 of it is effectively the same as a Roth IRA. I can take that money tax-free and buy a small car.

          4. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            but can't use it for Medicare supplemental? Also, you can spent it on non-medical like a car?
            " You can deduct the amount you deposit in an HSA from the income you pay federal income tax on. If you have money in your HSA when you turn 65, you can spend it on anything you want — but if you aren't spending it for a qualified medical expense, it will be taxed as income at your then current tax rate.

            How HSA-eligible plans work | HealthCare.gov "

            I often wonder how the IRS effectively monitor this… they'd have to be at an audit level…not
            sure their automated systems can deal with it.

            how do you get cash money out of an HSA?

            You don't think you might be IRS audit bait? 😉

          5. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            talking to some tax colleagues and of the opinion we'd probably decline and refer you to a professional …not sure if our tax software would know how to handle it correctly.. even wonder if Turbo Tax , etc, knows. You're challenging the code! You're the guy that causes the IRS to "tweak" year to year!

          6. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            No. Cannot use for Medicare Supplement. Dental & Vision premiums, yes. Any other legitimate medical expense as described in IRS Pub whatever is a tax-free reimbursement. Any other expenses or withdrawals will require income tax be paid.

            The IRS can, and will, audit. Expect pain if you screw it up.

            All HSAs are self directed. You put in a claim. You can upload pdfs of receipts, bills, etc. Yo then direct that the HSA pay the provider, or you as a reimbursement.

            Sure. Might be. But everything I claim is either paid directly to the provider, or it’s a reimbursement for Medicare premiums… my 199SSA is all the proof I need.

          7. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            You’re a well-informed taxpayer that actually reads the IRS Pubs AND you are ENTITLED to use any/all parts of the tax code to your benefit. Less than 5% of the folks we see know the code to this extent and use it like you are – which I agree with. A lot of this is not checkable with automated software but may flag it for a human to give a gander. One of the sticky wickets is looking at a fund that has been built over time with both pre-tax and post-tax money and being able to untangle it. Another is to figure out the basis of
            something like inherited property both land and other expenses and improvements. There are real CPAs that do this but there are some others who don’t know. IRS Enrolled agents are supposed to.

          8. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            “ One of the sticky wickets is looking at a fund that has been built over time with both pre-tax and post-tax money and being able to untangle it. ”
            This is why you keep your last 8606. It contains and tracks the post-tax basis, and is inherited.

            The basis of all other properties are the value at time of death. For stocks and such, it’s the closing value on date of death. All gains from inherited property are “long term” and taxed accordingly. With newer record keeping by brokers and such, this may change, but not in our lifetimes. Too much stuff out there with unknown costs.

          9. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            ever thought much of capital gains loss carryforward?

          10. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            I try not to have any. I’ve always been able to take a gain to cover. Cleaner, and there’s always that one hot stock from years back that just stopped.

          11. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            seen some folks with remote-adminsitured investments incur 30K+ on paper 10K+ years of 3k deductions, often no final tax liability. I’ve heard there are some “ways” to “use” this to one’s advantage.

  2. kls Avatar
    kls

    How can anyone criticize a so called news organization which used the obituary lead for the ISIS leaders as a 'Muslim Scholar'?

    1. Lefty665 Avatar
      Lefty665

      <i>obituary lead for the ISIS leaders as a 'Muslim Scholar'?</i>

      That mismatch of singular and plural is inexcusable and highly deserving of criticism.

  3. Will Vehrs Avatar
    Will Vehrs

    After a lifetime of reading and subscribing to the WP, I finally cancelled last year. I've not looked back. It's the Washington Progressive now, with not even a hint of balanced reporting.

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I was looking at this – Does the NYT make money?

    The New York Times Company has been making money, with revenue increasing from $2.07 billion in 2021 to $2.31 billion in 2022. In 2023, the company's revenue sources included:
    Advertising revenue: Over $505 million, a slight decrease from the previous year but an improvement from 2020 and 2021
    Subscription revenue: Over $1.6 billion, the first time the company has surpassed this amount
    Digital subscriptions: Over $1 billion, including 10.36 million subscribers and 9.7 digital-only subscribers

    The New York Times made more than $1 billion from digital subscriptions in 2023

    The company has also seen an increase in other revenues, with adjusted operating profit increasing 8.5% in the fourth quarter of 2023 to $154 million. In the first quarter of 2024, adjusted operating profit increased again by 40.9% to $76.1 million, driven by higher average revenue per user and an increase in subscribers. As of May 2024, The New York Times has a market cap of $8.19 billion, making it the 1906th most valuable company in the world by market cap. "

    so have the anti WaPo folks switched to the NYT or is it even more hated? 😉

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      Kind of like colleges – the cream of the crop can raise subscription / tuition prices and hold market share. The increased subscription prices offset the losses in advertising revenue / increasing operating costs.

      Unfortunately for most colleges and newspapers – only a few are "cream of the crop".

      Apparently, WaPo is not among the cream of the crop.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        But NYT is good? better than WaPo and other publications? Does that mean Conservatives
        and other WaPo haters subscribe to NYT? I kind of life comparing WaPo, NYT and WSJ on major news, myself. WaPo does better for Va than RTD sometimes.

  5. how_it_works Avatar
    how_it_works

    One of the few things I enjoyed doing after my dad passed away is to call the Washington Post and cancel his subscription.

    I suspect that a lot of Washington Post subscriptions are cancelled by the next-of-kin.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Did you then subscribe to some other "better" paper?

      1. how_it_works Avatar
        how_it_works

        Well, he’s passed away and I myself don’t subscribe to any “dead tree” media. So the answer is no.

        (Even when he was alive, he hardly ever read it, most copies went straight into the recycling bin without ever having been looked at).

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          I read online… WSJ, NYT, WaPo, VPAP, RTD, FLS, and more… never trust one source…especially from rightwing media.

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Which WaPo and the NYT are slowly becoming.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      MoDow don’t help.

  6. Lefty665 Avatar
    Lefty665

    The separation of the newsroom into sections for news, opinion and increasing readership is a good start on recovery. Separating news from opinion was what put the WSJ back on track in the '90s after they were busted really hard for editorializing on the front page. Not sure when the WashPost combined those functions, but like with the NYT and NPR it has not worked out so well.

    They can also look forward to dramatically increased readership after this November when you know who and his chaos/drama likely moves back into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Many current employees may find that a mixed blessing, but it will drive clicks and save some of their jobs.

    Ironic that Bezos is bringing in people from the WSJ and British papers to reduce his losses and to reeducate the once highly profitable WashPost on how to make money in journalism.

  7. Chip Gibson Avatar
    Chip Gibson

    Pack up the entire WAPO, buildings and all. Exile the whole mess. Nothing but self-destructive propaganda and BS.

  8. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    Why we need more publicly funded media…

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I notice an absence of similar hate towards the NYT…. what gives? Also, no preferred print media for the haters… not even WSJ.

  9. Marty Chapman Avatar
    Marty Chapman

    I feel certain the WaPo could turn it around by hiring Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Michael Paul Williams away from the RTD.

  10. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
    f/k/a_tmtfairfax

    Journalism is a strange profession where people perform their jobs not to satisfy the needs and wants of their customers, but rather to satisfy their own needs and desires. Most people, irrespective of their political views, simply want to what happened, where, when and, if possible, why? They generally realize that many things in life are complex and there aren't always answers to questions. Reporting that provides this information will likely be rewarded with readership. When this type of reporting is not provided, readership and subscriptions will fall, often drastically.

    And given the problems facing the media, why even keep an editorial staff that opines? How much could a paper save if it eliminated its internal opinion writers and simply published a variety of columns from people with different points of view?

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      tell that to WSJ! 😉

      1. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
        f/k/a_tmtfairfax

        I think this should be considered across the board.

        One of my old internal clients who knew quite a bit about marketing said one should be able to answer the following questions.

        Who is your customer? What do they want? How do you know that? How can you meet the want? How can you measure that?

        It applies to lawyers, dentists, journalists as well as retailers.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          and Amazon and Tik Tok, etc et al…. that’s what competition is all about , right?

          1. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
            f/k/a_tmtfairfax

            The bottom line is that traditional media is suffering. Would the WaPo or any other paper gain subscribers if they were to fire their editorial writers and hire more people to report on local news? I think so.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Traditional media IS suffering but it’s not going to go extinct. It’s going to find a business model that works and be “born-again” – but “bad” media which is not really “journalism” will continue to spit out stuff that
            some folks grave and prefer instead of true facts and realities. For instance, look at what media “reports” on Majorie Taylor Green more than just sound bites that appeal to folks that never really read real journalism to start with. The ignorati have taken over”media” in my view.

            Hate WaPO and lover Fox News? not so much.

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