Amazon hears from hometown critics

In another example, Amazon demanded a similar discount from Berkshire Publishing Group. That company also declined the demand and Amazon stopped ordering from it.

Of course, the Seattle Times has acknowledged that many industry players have a bone to pick with Amazon and that’s why many are stepping forward to speak out against it.

“Although publishers rarely criticize companies they do business with, some say they're speaking out against Amazon partly because they're offended by its tactics,” writes the Times’s Amy Martinez. “They describe Amazon's demands – made in email, with no personal-contact information provided – as overly aggressive and leaving almost no room for discussion.” 

In another article entitled “Amazon a virtual no-show in hometown philanthropy,” “the Seattle Times outlines the company’s somewhat meager participation in civic life in the city where its headquarters are, a major contrast to other large corporations in the area such as Microsoft,” writes publishing trade newsletter Shelf Awareness. 

According to the paper, Amazon contributed nothing last year to United Way of King County and is “not a major donor” to other local charities or civic groups. 

Nonetheless, Amazon has been “taking some steps toward greater involvement in its hometown,” write the Times’s reporters, Kristi Heim and Martinez. It pledged to establish two $1-million endowed professorships at the University of Washington and offered volunteer help and in-kind donations to more than 30 local nonprofits.

There may be a reason for Amazon’s relatively less active role in local philanthropic causes, muses Shelf Awareness.

“For his part, Amazon's Bezos has questioned the value of traditional philanthropy. In 2010, he told Charlie Rose: "I'm convinced that in many cases, for-profit models improve the world more than philanthropy models, if they can be made to work." And last year he told the Times: ‘Our core business activities are probably the most important thing we do to contribute, as well as our employment in the area.’”

Still, the Seattle Times’s reporting – and its bruising revelations – will continue to chip away at Amazon’s reputation.

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.

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