Yesterday was an incredibly grim day for the Washington Post — and for D.C. The Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, laid off up to a third of its staff. The sports section is being shuttered, the Metro section cut by three-quarters, and most of the critics who reviewed local culture sent packing.
We talked with Jack Shafer, who has been covering the Post for 40 years to learn what this change means for all of us who call D.C. home.
What’s Been Cut?
The Post laid off more than 300 of the roughly 800 journalists in its newsroom, as well as a few business folks. They completely cut the sports and book sections and are shutting down their daily news podcast, “Post Reports.” The tech and international sections also took a big hit.
But some of the most severe cuts are on the Post’s Metro desk. According to one laid off Metro staffer, there will only be a dozen reporters left covering local, down from 40 (and down from 100 just a few years ago). Thankfully, the Capital Weather Gang managed to hang on, phew. Still, the Post has long been seen as a bedrock of local news in D.C. and these cuts will change the local news ecosystem significantly.
How Did We Get Here?
When he took over The Post, Bezos had a vision of profitability for the paper, which had been suffering from declining audiences and subscriptions for years. But a struggling news climate and a few ill-conceived moves — like killing the Kamala Harris endorsement and a few high-profile resignations — led to mass subscription cancellations that hurt the paper’s bottom line.
“I call them the vanity press moguls,” said Shafer, “We've seen this time and again. People with a lot of money are attracted to the glittery thing that a publication can be, and think, ‘I can do better than the last guy.’ And it takes them a couple years to figure out that the problems they thought were easily solved are much more thorny.”
Layoffs at the Post have been expected for weeks, ever since the paper announced it would not be sending any reporters to the Olympics. This prompted staff to send Bezos a letter urging him not to shrink the newsroom. Nevertheless, all staffers were told to stay home on Wednesday, as the layoffs slowly became public throughout the day.
"These layoffs are not inevitable,” said the Washington Post Guild. “A newsroom cannot be hollowed out without consequences of its credibility, its reach and its future.” Bezos has so far remained silent on the issue.
Where Does That Leave Us?
The outrage in D.C. is palpable. Local officials are criticizing Bezos spending $40M on Amazon's new “Melania” documentary, while simultaneously cutting 300 Post staff. Others say they are “stunned” and “sickened” by all the great journalists just laid off and that it's a "devastating blow” to journalism writ large.
Meanwhile, many — including The Post’s previous owner Don Graham — have been reaching out to laid off employees to offer a reference, flag jobs, or offer freelance opportunities.
The Post Guild, which represents staffers, is rallying today at 12 p.m. outside the paper's headquarters and has a GoFundMe for laid off staff.
