While the US media has survived a precipitous drop in advertising revenue as tech giants like Facebook and Google have continued to hollow out the industry, Silicon Valley billionaires have been stepping in to purchase struggling legacy media organizations, seeing a valuable opportunity to peddle influence and protect their interests.

The latest example of this trend broke Sunday night when the Wall Street Journal reported that Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and wife Lynne Benioff have agreed to purchase Time Magazine from Koch brothers-owned Meredith Corp. only eight months after the Kochs had purchased Meredith after Meredith had bought what was formerly the magazine portfolio of Time Warner (itself now merged with AT&T). The sale price: $190 million.

Like Jeff Bezos, who purchased the struggling Washington Post in 2013 and provided the company with a badly needed infusion of capital, the Benioffs are purchasing Time as private individuals. Meredith had put several magazines, including Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money up for sale earlier this year. The deal is expected to close within 30 days.

In a statement to WSJ, Benioff praised Time as "a strong business" (which is overly generous, to say the least, after more than a decade of shrinking revenues) and clarified that it would have nothing to do with Salesforce (at least not officially, that is).

In an interview, Mr. Benioff said, "We’re investing in a company with tremendous impact on the world, one that is also an incredibly strong business. That’s what we’re looking for when we invest as a family."

Specifically, the Benioffs said they were interested in the magazine's "large audience" and growing digital business.

The Benioffs are optimistic about Time’s large audience and growing video business. "The power of Time is its unique story telling of the people and issues that affect us all and connect us all," said Mrs. Benioff. Still, the couple will be taking over a publication whose business has been hammered from ongoing declines in print advertising and newsstand sales. Many magazines have struggled to transition into digital-first businesses as traditional sources of revenue have eroded. The Benioffs said they won’t have a role in day-to-day operations of the magazine or journalistic decisions. Mr. Benioff said the family doesn’t plan to acquire any other magazine titles from Meredith. The Benioffs are the latest wealthy people from the tech world to buy a traditional news publication. In 2013, Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon.com Inc., bought the Washington Post. And last year, Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of the late Steve Jobs, acquired a majority stake in the Atlantic magazine via her organization, the Emerson Collective.

Surprisingly, WSJ neglects to explore why the Benioffs might be interested in Time. For example, Bezos has leveraged his ownership of Amazon to protect his interests, with the paper emerging as a relentless critic of the Trump Administration (Trump has attacked WaPo as Amazon's "chief lobbyist) that marshaled its resources to stop Roy Moore from being elected to Jeff Sessions old Senate seat last year. More recently, WaPo has helped to sabotage the SCOTUS nomination of Brett Kavanaugh - something that until very recently appeared all-but-assured. Instead, WSJ found a rent-a-quote expert to deliver a quote about how these billionaires are motivated by nothing more than a "belief in journalism."

"What they all share in common is that they believe in journalism," said Robin Steinberg, a media consultant.

Since it was launched by two Yale graduates in 1923, Time has emerged as one of the most iconic - albeit left-leaning - American newsmagazines. Its Time "Person of the Year" award is a media event in and of itself. By buying the magazine, the Benioffs will now be able to influence the magazine's coverage in myriad ways, both direct and indirect, while also offering editorial support for the "progressive" causes that Benioff, an "activist" CEO in the WSJ's estimation, has long supported.

The sale marks a new chapter for a magazine that has been one of the country’s most powerful political and cultural forces, its red-bordered covers synonymous with the week’s most important events. Special issues, such as its annual Person of the Year, and the magazine’s Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, have become stand-alone media events in their own right. "Time has resonance because it has always presented a very American point of view," said Richard Stengel, a former managing editor of the magazine. "It was all about providing analysis, about breaking new ideas, with sophistication and polish." Mr. Stengel expressed confidence that the publication will survive, comparing it to "a classic piece of waterfront property."

While the magazine has struggled with digital, its print circulation is down significantly.

Under Time Inc., the magazine sought to cut printing costs while investing in digital opportunities. Time has slashed its circulation significantly to 2.3 million for the six-month period ended June 30, according to the Alliance for Audited Media, down from 3 million in the same period a year earlier. At the same time, it has tried to expand its digital reach. Time.com’s audience grew to 31.7 million multiplatform unique visitors in July 2018, up from nearly 27.4 million in July 2015, according to media measurement firm comScore Inc.

But with a billionaire at the helm, the magazine will benefit from a badly needed new cash, as the Benioffs measure the return on this investment not on dollars earned, but on the level of influence they can now exert on the culture - and on politicians who might otherwise pass regulations and other laws contrary to the interests of Salesforce.