Skip to footer

What's going on with the Washington Post's 'buy it now' Amazon book links?

Some Washington Post book reviews currently have a 'buy it now' link to Amazon embedded in the text, but a Washington Post spokesperson says the buttons are a mistake and that they're meant to go on the side of the page.

|
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
The Washington Post was bought by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2013.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

The Washington Post reportedly added a “buy it now” Amazon link to a blog post about the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl, but the paper says the link's placement in the text of the article was a mistake.

The Washington Post was bought by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2013.

On Aug. 15, an article about a controversial new cover for “Charlie” was posted online and, within the text of the article, the words “Roald Dahl classic” were a link to an Amazon page for the novel, with a button saying “Buy it now” appearing after the link, according to industry newsletter Shelf Awareness. However, the link was soon taken down.

Washington Post director of communications Kris Coratti told the website Mashable that the only thing that was different about the “buy it now” button was that it appeared in the text of the article rather than on the side. 

“With the recent introduction of our new article format, the button functionality at first was not supported but was able to be added back in the last few days,” Coratti said in a statement. "The button was inadvertently incorporated into the text of stories rather than on the side, which is why people thought it was new. As we work to resume our previous years-long practice, we have removed the button from stories.”

Meanwhile, an unnamed spokesperson for the paper told the website Digiday that “it was not intentional” and that “the button is being fixed and will go back on the side where it has always been.”

While the books page may still be in the process of being fixed, as this blog was being printed, some of the top reviews on the Post website – book reviews of “Unmanned” by Dan Fesperman, “A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall” by Will Chancellor, and “In the Wolf’s Mouth” by Adam Foulds – have text links to Amazon’s site.

Reviews of “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah” by Bob Stanley and “The Sorcery Club” by Elliott O’Donnell contain the “buy it now” link that reportedly appeared in the article about “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

The reviews of “Blue-Eyed Boy” by Robert Timberg and “The End of Absence” by Michael Harris, however, do not seem to have any Amazon links. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to What's going on with the Washington Post's 'buy it now' Amazon book links?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2014/0818/What-s-going-on-with-the-Washington-Post-s-buy-it-now-Amazon-book-links
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe