As the billionaire founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos struck terror into the hearts of traditional publishers. Now, as the new owner of the troubled Washington Post, he has a foot in both camps.

The sale ends eight decades of ownership by the Graham family, a glittering newspaper dynasty that married civic duty with the courage to defend journalism against the arrogance of power. Their near monopoly in Washington shielded journalists from commercial pressures, too: the newsroom once numbered more than 1,000 journalists and unearthed scandals such as Watergate, which for better or worse turned journalists into celebrities.

But as with other US newspapers, a captive audience may have dulled the incentive to experiment and innovate. Unlike its arch rival The New York Times, the Post abandoned its national ambitions and become a metropolitan daily. By the time the internet swept a kaleidoscope of content on to readers’ screens, the title was dangerously close to becoming an anachronism. Its top brass were slow to grasp the need for change.