The Washington Post announced today that it would be laying off about 30% of its staff and would focus its coverage in areas that include “politics, national affairs, people, power and trends” in order to place the publication on “better footing” amid rapid changes in how news is presented and consumed.
The layoffs, which had been expected, brought savage criticism of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who bought the Post in 2013. One writer for The Atlantic described the “murder” of The Washington Post, and The New York Times’ coverage said the cuts “are expected to decimate the organization’s sports, local news and international coverage.”
The Post’s former editor, Marty Baron, said in a statement, “This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”
In the statement, Baron cited “ill-conceived decisions that came from the very top” and an editorial page “that now only stands out for its moral infirmity.” He said he remained grateful to Bezos for his support during the eight years he was the senior editor. But he also blasted Bezos for “sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump.”
It was a radical departure from the reserve that Baron showed in a conversation with Bezos nearly a decade ago. In that exchange, Bezos spoke of the importance of the newspaper and said, “I’ve always believed ... that democracy dies in darkness,” echoing the Post’s slogan.
The Post, announcing “substantial newsroom reductions impacting nearly all news departments,” said the changes were necessary because “the company’s structure is too rooted in a different era, when we were a dominant, local print product.”
In the statement, Executive Editor Matt Murray went on to say, “We are far from alone in reevaluating our model or rethinking how we operate. The ecosystem of news and information, on- and off-platform, is changing radically. News consumers enjoy more variety, voices, platforms, and options than ever before. In just the last five years, multiple startups — and even individuals — have created meaningful products that draw attention and generate impact at low cost.”
Bezos has said from the start that he wants the Post to be profitable, and newsrooms nationwide have struggled financially as competition has increased and distrust of media has grown. But Bezos’s personal wealth has been an issue throughout his tenure at the Post, for which he paid $250 million in cash in 2013.
At the time of the sale, the Post reported that the operating revenue of the company’s newspaper division had declined 44% in the previous six years and that circulation was falling. Bezos told Baron in their conversation in 2016, however, that he remained optimistic about the publication’s future.
But every cut at the Post brought reminders that they were being done at the behest of the world’s third richest man (behind Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, according to Forbes). New York Times correspondent Peter Baker remarked on the dichotomy on X as news of the layoffs spread.
Bezos has long been under fire for his stewardship of the Post, blamed for everything from ending endorsements of presidential candidates just before the 2024 election to canceling its planned coverage of the Winter Olympics in Italy, then saying that it would just reduce the number of reporters it planned to send.
Statistician Nate Silver released a chart that he said depicted “the sad and self-inflicted decline of The Washington Post.” Using data from the website Memeorandum, he examined engagement with the Post’s news and politics stories over the past few years and saw the Post’s decline as The New York Times’ engagement rose.
Noting that about 250,000 subscribers canceled after a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris was pulled, Silver said the timing was poor and “understandably played into concerns about the increasing assertiveness of billionaires seeking to curry favor with the Trump administration and protect their financial interest.”
He also noted the Post’s pivot on its editorial pages to champion “personal liberties and free markets.”
“There’s nothing wrong with personal liberties and free markets; I’m a fan of these things myself. ... But it’s understandable that many subscribers felt betrayed. The Post rebuilt its brand from subscribers who wanted unflinching coverage of Trump, and then it pulled the rug out,” Silver wrote.
The changes at the Post under Bezos in many ways reflect other news organizations’ efforts to be less partisan as fewer Americans, especially those who identify as conservative, trust traditional news outlets. Today’s statement from the Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, alluded to this when he wrote, “even as we produce much excellent work, we too often write from one perspective, for one slice of the audience.”
And Bezos, explaining the shift of the editorial page, spoke of offering viewpoints “underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion.” He also expressed love for America, much as CBS recently has in its revamp under Bari Weiss, saying, “I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else.”
As reporters for the Post began getting notice that their jobs would be eliminated, many shared the information on social media, including the Post’s Ukraine correspondent, Lizzie Johnson, who said she was “devastated.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren also took to X to express outrage over the layoffs, noting that the Post’s technology reporter, Caroline O’Donovan, whose beat includes Amazon, was among those who lost their job today.
Not everyone was unhappy about the news, however.
The Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo, who has been critical of the newspaper’s coverage of his work on critical race theory and other issues, wrote on X, “The Washington Post had been running on the reputation from their work in the Watergate era — which is itself a pernicious and self-serving myth — and didn’t notice that their paper was getting dominated from the left by The New York Times and from the right by News Corporation. Then they foolishly went all-in on hysterical Resistance Lib content, which was no better than free content from Brooklyn Dad Defiant."
He then began reposting fired reporters’ tweets without comment.