>> Continued From the Previous Page <<
Rumors of major layoffs have circulated for weeks, especially after management initially decided not to send reporters to this month’s Winter Olympics—a decision that was later reversed. Publisher Will Lewis is reportedly pursuing a strategy aimed at profitability, focusing on politics and a handful of key areas while scaling back coverage in sports and foreign affairs.
That plan has met resistance inside the newsroom. Multiple reporting teams reportedly sent letters to owner Jeff Bezos, warning against hollowing out the paper.
In one letter obtained by CNN, White House bureau chief Matt Viser and seven other reporters stressed the newsroom could not maintain its reporting standards if other sections were gutted.
“If the plan, to the extent there is one, is to reorient around politics we wanted to emphasize how much we rely on collaboration with foreign, sports, local — the entire paper, really. And if other sections are diminished, we all are,” the letter said.
Last year, Bezos introduced a new vision for the opinion section, promoting libertarian values such as free markets and personal liberty. The move prompted opinion editor David Shipley to leave. Months earlier, Bezos canceled a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, a decision that triggered subscriber cancellations and hurt revenue.
Some current and former Post journalists blame the upheaval on Bezos’ perceived efforts to appease former President Donald Trump, citing Amazon’s and Bezos’ broader business interests.
“Bezos is not trying to save The Washington Post. He’s trying to survive Donald Trump,” former Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote this week.
Former executive editor Marty Baron, who retired in 2021, called the situation grim.
“This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations,” Baron said. “Of course, there were acute business problems that had to be addressed. No one can deny that.”
But he added, “The Post’s challenges, however, were made infinitely worse by ill-conceived decisions that came from the very top.”
