The Washington Post initiated long-rumored layoffs on Wednesday, as the Jeff Bezos-owned media company tries to reposition itself in an industry grappling with declining revenue.
The Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, and its chief human resources officer, Wayne Connell, sent a message to employees on Wednesday morning asking them to stay at home for a Zoom meeting announcing “significant actions,” meaning an announcement of layoffs. The New York Times reported that Murray told staffers there would be a “significant staff reduction.” Murray said that the sports section would end, as would books coverage, while the metro coverage would be slimmed down. Also shuttering is the Post Reports daily podcast.
In recent weeks, journalists at the Post and past staffers have launched a campaign to try to spare the publication from massive layoffs. Some have written to Bezos directly, including foreign correspondents, seeking to preserve coverage.
The Post has seen declining audience in monthly digital traffic, albeit those declines have been relatively widespread across the news media business. The publication also reportedly saw a subscription fall off after Bezos nixed the Post editorial page efforts to endorse Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Bezos later shifted the strategy of the opinion pages, leading to an exodus of editors and columnists. The Amazon founder said that the opinion content would focus on the “defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
There has been some resentment that the cuts are taking place just as Amazon MGM is distributing Melania, the two-hour documentary that has been savaged by critics as an informercial for First Lady Melania Trump, with the studio reportedly paying $40 million for the rights and another $35 million for marketing. Bezos is the founder of Amazon and serves as its executive chairman, but he owns the Post as part of his personal portfolio.
A target of Donald Trump in his first term, Bezos has been among the tech titans who have sought to ingratiate themselves with the president in his second. Bezos attended Trump’s swearing in ceremony, and earlier this week greeted Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Florida as a part of a visit to the Blue Origin space facility.
More to come.
English (US) ·