But they did switch to a pretty good online presence, the NYT did games, others could try to go after classifieds or other online pastimes without neutering the news room like Bezos has done. Sure it takes investment, Bezos seems to have had no problems doing that with Amazon.
He should've chosen to not make editorial decisions, and help with finding other revenue sources. Instead he lost revenue by making editorial decisions, and shows no signs of learning anything. He's lost more in market value at this point than yearly profit with his current strategy, which he can change anytime.
