The Washington Post is laying off one-third of its staff in the newsroom as well as other departments.
The large-scale cutbacks started Wednesday and including eliminating its sports department and reducing the number of journalists it stations overseas, the Associated Press reported.
The changes were announced by executive editor Matt Murray in a Zoom meeting.
The staff reduction is a big hit for the Post, known its Watergate revelations and most recently for aggressive coverage of President Donald Trump’s cutbacks to the federal workforce.
Staff members in the newsroom were told they would be getting emails with one of two possible subject lines. One will state the person’s role has been eliminated; the other, their role hasn’t been eliminated.
A Post representative confirmed that one-third of the staff would be cut, but did not state how many total employees the newspaper has.
The newspaper’s books department will be closed, and its Washington-area news department and editing staff will be restructured, Murray said. Its Post Reports podcast will be suspended.
Murray said the goal is to create a Post that can grow and thrive again.
“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,” a Post spokesperson 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.”
Since the Post is a private company, it does not reveal how many subscribers it has. The number is believed to be about 2 million.
The moves were expected after word leaked that the Post had told its sports staffers who had arranged to cover the Winter Olympics in Italy that they would not be going.
After it became public, the Post said it would be sending a limited staff.
The newspaper has been bleeding subscribers in part due to decisions made by owner Jeff Bezos, including — pulling back from an endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, during the 2024 presidential election against Trump.
The Washington Post Guild, the union for staff members, appealed to the public to send a message to Bezos — “Enough is enough. Without the staff of The Washington Post, there is no Washington Post.”
