compared to the best known subscription success stories -- the NYT, WP -- it certainly seems significantly smaller. but i agree, that comparison isn't very valid, it's certainly a heavyweight amongst magazines.
Is WP WaPo or something else? WaPo went for only a few hundred million when sold. Economist around the same time was valued 3-5x more at $1B. Did WaPo turn things around that much? Economist is mostly owned by super rich elite families, so prestige would’ve entered what they paid too. But WaPo was purchased by Bezos so not likely he was super skimpy on the price (even being considerably “poorer” back then)
Yeah they did. After being bought by Bezos they made a number of changes that have been for the better. They've turned a profit over the last few years based on their growing subscriber base and their digital publishing business.
Of course they've built it all using AWS and I would love to learn more about how they leverage that platform.