The ex-Washington Post editor visited Utah Valley University for a forum Tuesday.

By Samuel Benson

When Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post for $250 million in 2013, he took an immediate interest in the organization’s operating side. He obsessed over subscriber metrics, toying with the language in renewal notifications. He adjusted the colors on the website to better engage readers.

But when it came to the paper’s chief output, its journalism, Bezos took a hands-off approach. He gave a simple piece of instruction to Martin Baron, who had been the paper’s editor for less than a year: “Don’t be boring.”

It’s one of many anecdotes Baron told Utah Valley University President Astrid Tuminez during a forum on Tuesday morning. Baron said the advice shaped his time at The Post, during a time when many media outlets defaulted to playing the role of entertainment. Baron, instead, decided to focus on engagement.

“We certainly should be able to tell stories in ways that people are interested in,” Baron said. “And that’s on us to be able to figure out how to do that. But I don’t think we should be strictly performative.”

Baron, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor, released a new book last year, “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post.” As the title suggests, it focuses on the many public and private tensions between The Post’s ownership and the Trump administration.

Baron served as The Post’s editor from 2012 to 2021. Before, he was editor of The Boston Globe from 2001 to 2012, where he oversaw the paper’s coverage of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal, winning a Pulitzer Prize and portrayed in the movie “Spotlight.”

A major theme of Baron’s new book — and, in turn, Baron’s conversation with Tuminez — is the proper role of the press in American society. “The press is under a tremendous amount of pressure today,” Baron said. “Public approval of the press is at a very low level.”

https://www.deseret.com/politics/2024/03/26/marty-baron-at-uvu-news-future/