As if the Washington Post Could not Get Any Worse

Now the Jeff Bezos' disaster zone will start using AI and algorithms to price gouge subscribers.

I'm thinking that destroying the Post was always his long term goal.

Amid its pivot to AI, the Washington Post is abandoning the traditional fix-priced subscription model.

According to new reporting from Washingtonian, the once-venerable newspaper will now be setting readers’ subscription rates based on an AI-driven algorithm that interprets their personal data, mirroring controversial schemes used by services like Uber, Ticketmaster, and airlines.

Readers were informed of the change in the fine-print of an email they received last week warning them that their fee was being set at a higher price. “This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data,” it stated.

The Post is being opaque about how the pricing algorithm works. When Washingtonian asked the Post for comment on the new pricing mechanism, it directed the paper to a blog post from its engineering team which explains its new AI-driven “smart metering model.” The model determines the number of articles that anonymous users, who aren’t registered on the Post’s website, and registered users, who’ve signed up but don’t pay for a subscription, can read before being shown a paywall.

It’s the latest sign of how the newspaper has undergone a tech- and AI-inflected pivot under the ownership of Jeff Bezos. Bezos’s Amazon, for instance, uses a dynamic pricing scheme that determines prices based on details like demand and location.

The Washington Post is complete sh%$.  Amazon is complete sh%$. 

To quote Zathras, "At least there is symmetry."

Jeff Bezos had better pray that there is no afterlife, because he will not fare well if there is.