In May of 2020, seven members of the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee penned a letter to then CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos. “On April 23,” their message started, The Wall Street Journal “reported that Amazon employees used sensitive business information from third-party sellers on its platform to develop competing products.” The article contradicted earlier sworn testimony from the corporate’s normal counsel, probably rendering the testimony “false or perjurious,” the seven congressional leaders wrote.
The Journal’s exposé, which in the end spurred Bezos’s first-ever congressional testimony, was written by Dana Mattioli as a part of the paper’s wide-ranging investigation into Amazon’s enterprise practices. At the time, Mattioli, a longtime enterprise reporter, had lately moved into the Amazon beat, her curiosity piqued by the company’s tentacular infiltration of practically each facet of American financial life. Now, 4 years later, she’s out with The Everything War, a brand new book-length examination of Amazon that explores every little thing from its rise to energy to its lobbying efforts and the brewing backlash towards it.
In this interview with Vanity Fair, edited for size and readability, Mattioli and I spoke in regards to the challenges of reporting on an infamously secretive and combative firm, Amazon’s forays into political-influence peddling, its new foe within the Biden administration, and which candidate she thinks Amazon execs need to see again within the White House come January 2025.
Vanity Fair: What first bought you interested by protecting Amazon?
Dana Mattioli: I used to be The Wall Street Journal’s mergers-and-acquisitions reporter for six years, and in that position, my job was to cowl which corporations are shopping for different corporations throughout industries globally. Something fascinating occurred throughout my tenure in that position. It wasn’t simply retail corporations that had been nervous about Amazon. I’d converse to the bankers, the legal professionals, the CEOs, the board members at totally different corporations, and so they began speaking about how they had been fearful about Amazon invading their trade. Over the course of these six years, these questions bought louder. It began bleeding into different sectors the place you wouldn’t even actually take into consideration Amazon on the time. The firm appeared to stretch into each vertical and its tentacles saved spreading. It occurred to me that this was essentially the most attention-grabbing firm, but in addition one of the crucial secretive corporations in enterprise historical past. That to me appeared like such a enjoyable problem to dig in and see what was happening behind the scenes.
What are the types of challenges reporters protecting the corporate face?
I’d say that, because it pertains to me, they didn’t present entry, however that does not imply I didn’t get entry. I spoke to 17 S-team members—essentially the most senior folks on the firm—for this e-book, with out the corporate realizing. I spoke to tons of of individuals in and across the firm. I had tons of of pages of inner paperwork. They didn’t actually cooperate for the e-book in establishing interviews, and I perceive why. Some of my investigations on the Journal had been very hard-hitting. One of them was the premise for Jeff Bezos’s being referred to as to testify to Congress for the primary time in his profession. So they did not take part on an official foundation, however I in fact did a full fact-check. Out of equity, I incorporate their PR statements and rebuttals very generously all through. But it’s an attention-grabbing firm from a PR standpoint. There was an investigation from Mother Jones in regards to the firm bullying reporters, how they’ve lied to reporters previously, and the way that makes issues troublesome for reporters making an attempt to cowl the corporate. And that investigation questions whether or not that’s a tactic to get folks to again off and never even need to cowl them within the first place.
What do you suppose it’s about Amazon’s inner tradition that made so many workers prepared to speak to you?
Amazon is essentially the most attention-grabbing firm tradition and essentially the most aggressive one I’ve ever lined. It’s an enormous firm. More than 1,000,000 folks work there. The turnover and the burnout is far increased than at most different corporations. People have a tendency to not final, as a result of it’s very aggressive and it may be bruising. As a results of that, lots of people have come to me—each folks nonetheless there and folks that have left—to inform me their experiences.
When I delve into what goes on behind the scenes and the anticompetitive enterprise behaviors that make Amazon win so typically, numerous it’s the product of this tradition. A number of the stunning behaviors are due to this firm’s tradition. If you’re auditioning on your job day-after-day, and also you’re auditioning towards each different sensible worker there, and you understand that on the finish of the 12 months, 6% of you’re going to get lower it doesn’t matter what, and on the similar time, you’ve got entry to unequalled information on companions, sellers, and rivals, you could be tempted to take a look at that information to get an edge and hold your job and get to your restricted inventory items. If you’re at [Amazon] and also you’re assembly with [outside companies] on the dealmaking aspect or the Alexa enterprise capital aspect, you could be tempted to not overlook what you realized in these conferences and apply it to a product to have a house run.