Washington Post guts staff, shrinks news coverage
The reductions, which will impact the international, editing, metro and sports desks, and come just days after the newspaper, founded in 1877, scaled back its coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics amid mounting financial losses.
Highlights:
- Executive Editor announces layoffs in a company-wide call
- Post says it is taking 'difficult but decisive actions'
- A third of company's employees affected by layoffs
- Bezos bought the newspaper from Graham family in 2013
The Washington Post, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, began widespread layoffs yesterday (4 February) that will drastically shrink the size of the storied newspaper and affect all departments, according to a recording of a company-wide call shared with Reuters.
The cuts will impact a third of all employees, according to the newspaper's spokesperson.
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The newsroom is losing "hundreds" of staffers, according to a spokesperson for the Washington-Baltimore News Guild union, which represents Post employees.
Executive Editor Matt Murray informed the staff of the reductions, which will impact the international, editing, metro and sports desks, and come just days after the newspaper, founded in 1877, scaled back its coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics amid mounting financial losses.
"For too long, we've operated with a structure that's too rooted in the days when we were a quasi-monopoly local newspaper," Murray said on the call, adding that "we need a new way forward and a sounder foundation."
The Washington Post is undergoing wrenching changes to readership and revenue. Other large city daily newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times, are struggling as consumers turn to social media for their main source of news.
One Post reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the newly announced layoffs a "bloodbath."
The impacted journalists include Amazon beat reporter Caroline O'Donovan, Cairo Bureau Chief Claire Parker and the rest of the Post's Middle East correspondents and editors, according to X posts from O'Donovan and Parker.
Today's layoffs at the Washington Post are a devastating setback for the scores of individual journalists affected and for the journalism profession
"The Washington Post is taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future, in what amounts to a significant restructuring across the company," the Post said in a statement.
"These steps are designed to strengthen our footing and sharpen our focus on delivering the distinctive journalism that sets The Post apart and, most importantly, engages our customers."
Bezos bought the newspaper in 2013 for $250 million from the Graham family.
All departments impacted
News outlets have struggled for years to maintain a sustainable business model after the internet upended the economics of journalism.
The Washington Post last year made changes across several business functions and announced job cuts, saying then that the reductions would not impact its newsroom. The newspaper had offered voluntary separation packages to employees across all functions in 2023 amid losses of $100 million.
Its 2025 paid average daily circulation was 97,000, with roughly 160,000 on Sundays, representing a steep decline from its 250,000 average daily circulation in 2020, according to data from the Alliance for Audited Media.
"If Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, then The Post deserves a steward that will," the Washington Post Guild, another union that represents Post employees, said on X.
The Post's White House staff said in a letter to Bezos last week that their most impactful coverage depends heavily on collaboration with teams at risk of job cuts and that a diversified newsroom is essential when the paper faces financial challenges.
Murray said on Wednesday's call that all Post departments are impacted by the cuts.
"Politics and government will remain our largest desk and will remain central to our engagement and subscriber growth," Murray said.
Bezos said at the time he bought the Post that he would preserve its journalistic tradition and would not lead its day-to-day operations. But there "will, of course, be change" over the coming years, Bezos added.
Don Graham, the publisher of the paper between 1979 and 2000 and son of the late legendary Post publisher Katharine Graham, posted on Facebook about the layoffs.
"I am sad that so many excellent reporters and editors - and old friends - are losing their jobs. My first concern is for them; I will do anything I can to help. I will have to learn a new way to read the paper, since I have started with the sports page since the late 1940's," Graham said.
Clashes with journalists
In recent years, The Post has clashed with some of its journalists, who have openly criticised Bezos after the newspaper decided not to endorse a candidate in the November 2024 US presidential election, leading to more than 200,000 people cancelling their digital subscriptions.
The newspaper, which appointed William Lewis as its CEO in early 2024, also revamped its opinion section last year, shifting its focus to "personal liberties and free markets."
Bezos was among the several tech executives seen as making overtures to US President Donald Trump last year.
Bezos was seated prominently at Trump's inauguration, underscoring his shifting ties.
Trump was a critic of Bezos during his first term in office over what the Republican president called unfair coverage by The Post.
Trump praised the tech billionaire in March 2025, saying Bezos was doing "a real job" with the publication.
FBI agents searched a Post reporter's home on 14 January as part of an investigation into sharing secret government information, in a move that press advocates said threatened journalistic freedom.
"Today's layoffs at the Washington Post are a devastating setback for the scores of individual journalists affected and for the journalism profession," National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr said in a statement.
