Washington Post layoffs include all Ukraine, Middle East offices – National
The Washington Post laid off a third of its staff on Wednesday, eliminating its sports division, several foreign bureaus and its publications in a broad purge that would have dealt a brutal blow to journalism and one of its most popular brands.
The Post’s editor-in-chief, Matt Murray, called the move painful but necessary to lay a solid foundation and weather changes in technology and user habits. “We can’t be everything to everyone,” Murray wrote to staff.
He revealed the changes in a company-wide online meeting, and employees began receiving emails with two one-liners in the subject line – telling them their role had been removed or not.
Rumors of layoffs had been rife for weeks, ever since word leaked that sports journalists expected to travel to Italy for the Winter Olympics would not be leaving. But when the official word came down, the size and scale of the cuts was shocking, affecting almost every door in the newsroom.
“It’s just sad news for anyone who cares about journalism in America, really, the world,” said Margaret Sullivan, a Columbia University journalism professor and former Post and New York Times columnist.
“The Washington Post is very important in many ways, in news, sports and culture.”
Martin Baron, the Post’s first editor under its current owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, criticized his former boss and called what happened at the newspaper “an experiment in brand destruction in an instant.”
Journalists begged Bezos for help
Bezos, who has been silent for weeks amid calls from Post reporters to step in and stop the cuts, had no immediate comment.
The newspaper has been bleeding because of decisions made by Bezos, including withdrawing the endorsement of Kamala Harris, a Democrat, during the 2024 presidential election against Donald Trump, a Republican, and directing a sharp turn in the pages of liberal opinion.
A private company, the Post does not disclose how many subscribers it has, but it is believed to be around 2 million.
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The Post also would not say how many employees it has, making it difficult to estimate how many people were laid off Wednesday. The Post also did not disclose its financials.
The Post’s problems differ from those of its longtime rival The New York Times, which has thrived in recent years, in large part due to investments in affiliate products such as sports and its Wirecutter product recommendations. The Times has doubled its staff over the past decade.
Ending the sports section ends the department that has hosted many famous lines over the years, among them John Feinstein, Michael Wilbon, Shirley Povich, Sally Jenkins and Tony Kornheiser. The Times has also largely eliminated its sports section, but has replaced the cover by purchasing The Athletic and putting its work on the Times website.
The Post’s Book World, a site for book reviews, literary news and author interviews, was a dedicated section in its Sunday paper.
Half a century ago, the Post’s Watergate leak, led by intrepid reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, entered the history books. The Style section under longtime Editor-in-Chief Ben Bradlee hosts some of the country’s best editorial features.
All Mideast writers and editors have been withdrawn
Word of some cuts have come out during the day, such as when Cairo Bureau Chief Claire Parker announced at X that she had been fired, along with all of the newspaper’s Middle East writers and editors. “It’s hard to understand the concept,” he wrote.
Lizzie Johnson, who wrote last week about covering a war zone in Ukraine with no power, heat or running water, said she has also been suspended.
The head of the Ukraine office, Siobhan O’Grady, said it was “the honor of my life” to serve in this position, suggesting that she had also been released.
Anger and sadness spread throughout the world of journalism.
“The Post has survived nearly 150 years, from a family newspaper to an important national institution, and a pillar of the democratic process,” Ashley Parker, a Post reporter, wrote in an article for the Atlantic. But if the paper’s leadership continues on its current path, “it may not last long.”
Fearing for the future, Parker was one of the employees who left the newspaper to do other jobs in the past months.
The Atlanta paper also makes the cut
Also on Wednesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which stopped publication and went digital at the end of last year, announced that it is cutting 50 positions, or about 15% of its staff. Part of the jobs that were removed were in the newsroom.
Murray said the Post will focus on areas that demonstrate authority, diversity and impact, and resonate with readers, including politics, national affairs and security. Even during its recent troubles, the Post has been very aggressive in integrating Trump’s changes to the organization’s workforce.
The company’s structure is based on a different era, when the Post was the leading print brand, Murray said in his letter to employees. In places like video, the store doesn’t match consumer habits, he said.
“Significantly, our daily news has decreased dramatically over the last five years,” he said. “And because we produce great work, we tend to write in one way, we write for one slice of the audience.”
Although there are business areas that need to be discussed, Baron pointed the finger of blame at Bezos – with the “courageous” order to kill the president’s approval and to redo the editorial page that highlights only “moral weakness” and “sick” efforts to gain favor from Trump.
“Loyal readers, angry as they see owner Jeff Bezos betraying the values he was supposed to uphold, fled The Post,” Baron wrote. “In fact, they were expelled by the hundreds of thousands.”
Baron said he appreciated Bezos’ support during his time as editor, noting that the Amazon founder came under brutal pressure from Trump during the president’s administration.
“He spoke forcefully and boldly about the free press and the mission of The Post, demonstrating his commitment in a tangible way,” Baron wrote. “He used to declare that the success of The Post would be among the proudest achievements of his life. I wish I could find the same spirit today. There is no sign of it.”
