NOT long after Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, said he would pay $250m of his own money for the chronically loss-making Washington Post, in August 2013, he sat next to the newspaper’s editorial-page editor, Fred Hiatt, at a dinner. It was a perfect opportunity to influence the Post’s line, but Mr Bezos reportedly preferred to talk about other things on his mind, such as exploring the dark side of the moon. Technology, not journalism, is Mr Bezos’s passion.