Jeff Bezos once wrote that mega-consequential business decisions, ones that can’t easily be reversed, “must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation.” Surely this explains the time and care that the Amazon founder has taken in both relieving Washington Post C.E.O. Fred Ryan from his throne—a decision that followed a $100 million revenue miss, a mild anarchy from within his newsroom, and Ryan’s general inability to innovate beyond the mediaco’s beltway sweetspot—and in appointing his successor. The Washington Post may represent couch cushion money on the balance sheet of the Bezos family office, but the Amazon founder ostensibly knows that he is the custodian of an institution, and he doesn’t want to Licht it. By all accounts, he takes pride in stewarding the company and remains staunchly committed to returning it to profitability after a rough couple years.