The Washington Post is laying off around 4% of its workforce, the company announced. The newspaper is facing steep financial losses as well as an exodus of top talent from a newsroom.
The layoffs will impact fewer than 100 people throughout the newspaper’s business division, including its sales and marketing teams as well as information technology units, according to the publication.
The cuts will not affect the newsroom, which reduced its headcount two years ago when the company eliminated 240 jobs.
“The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are,” the statement from the newspaper read.
“Changes across our business functions are all in service of our greater goal to best position The Post for the future.”
Last year, Lewis told staffers that the paper lost $77 million in 2023 and that its digital subscriber base fell off considerably since 2020.
The Post, which appointed William Lewis as its CEO in early 2024, had decided not to endorse a candidate in the November U.S. presidential election, leading to more than 2,00,000 people canceling their digital subscriptions.
Bezos defended the move not to issue an endorsement, saying in an opinion piece in the paper that “most people believe the media is biased”, and the Post and other newspapers need to boost their credibility.
In 2020, the newspaper boasted 3 million digital subscribers. But by 2023, that number shrank to 2.5 million. While the newspaper’s website recorded 101 million unique monthly visitors in 2020, that number fell to 50 million in 2023.
The Washington Post reported operating profits of $246 million in 2018, which fell during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office.
Two columnists, Michele Norris and Robert Kagan, resigned from the newspaper in protest while two others, Molly Roberts and David Hoffman, stepped down from the editorial board.
Last week, two of the Washington Post’s top political reporters — Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer — were poached by The Atlantic, which is owned by a group funded by billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs.
(With inputs from agencies)
