News & Politics

The Washington Post Laid Off One-Third of Its Staff. The Internet Has Thoughts.

Jeff Bezos is not very popular among a lot of reporters, politicians, and DC-area leaders right now.

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Photograph by Evy Mages.

Americans woke up this morning to a nearly unrecognizable newspaper of record: Mass layoffs swept the Washington Post Wednesday, reducing the iconic media brand’s staff by one-third with the elimination of approximately 300 jobs. Executive editor Matt Murray announced the cuts on a companywide video call alongside human resources officer Wayne Connell. Absent from the call were Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has owned the Post since 2013, and publisher Will Lewis.

Among the casualties of the restructuring: The sports and books sections, multiple foreign bureaus, and the daily Post Reports podcast. DC-area readers have also lost a valued source of local news coverage—the paper’s metro desk will shrink from 40 reporters to a dozen. All of the paper’s photojournalists have reportedly been cut. The changes are galling but not entirely surprising for the publication, which lost an estimated $100 million in 2024. A smaller round of layoffs struck the office early last year, and management has continually tried to stop the bleeding by offering staff buyouts.

The Post’s financial difficulties compounded after Bezos spiked the editorial board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris just before the 2024 election; about 250,000 readers canceled their subscriptions in response. Since then, Bezos—who had a prime seat at Donald Trump’s inauguration last year and paid $75 million via Amazon to produce a Melania Trump documentary, which premiered just days ago—has made further changes to soften the paper’s criticism of the current administration, including a right-leaning overhaul of the opinion section. “The sentiment is that the Post’s existing financial problems were drastically deepened by his yanking of the Harris endorsement and his remolding of the opinion pages, which led to a subscriber exodus,” one staffer told the Columbia Journalism Review. “Paired with a failure to otherwise generate more revenue, it created a worse crisis for the business that we will now suffer for.” The layoffs at the Post come just days after Bezos’s Amazon announced a slew of reductions set to impact 16,000 jobs.

The Washington Post Guild is calling for donations to support laid-off staffers. The GoFundMe opened Wednesday with a $250,000 goal; as of noon Thursday, more than $360,000 had been raised, including a $10,000 contribution from Post alum Kara Swisher. (Swisher, who once expressed interest in buying the Post from Bezos, told The Wrap that she’s not sure she’d pursue such a deal now that so many of the paper’s writers are gone.)

The union condemned the layoffs in a statement, noting that the newspaper had already decreased by more than 400 people in the last three years. Members will hold a rally outside the Post offices at 1301 K St., NW, at noon today. “Now is the time to stand in solidarity with our laid-off colleagues and with those who remain, who will now be asked to do more with less,” the Guild writes. “There is still time to save the Post.” (Washingtonian’s editorial staff is also represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild.)

Murray noted during yesterday’s call that technology will be one of the coverage areas prioritized in the Post’s new model. That apparently does not include tech reporter Caroline O’Donovan, who covered Amazon.

The newspaper’s Ukraine foreign bureau is among those eliminated, including its chief Siobhán O’Grady.

Lizzie Johnson, the Post’s Ukraine correspondent, learned her job had been cut while reporting from Kyiv.

The paper has eliminated its entire Middle East correspondence team, said Cairo bureau chief Claire Parker.

A number of journalists who won Pulitzer prizes for their work with the Post were let go, including enterprise reporter Marissa J. Lang, who was honored in 2022 for her coverage of the January 6 Capitol riot.

Reporters across the Metro desk were laid off, including city politics reporter Michael Brice-Saddler.

Emmanuel Felton, the paper’s race and ethnicity reporter, said he’d been told his coverage was driving subscriptions just months before his position was eliminated.

Political features reporter Jesús Rodríguez, who also lost his job, noted that these layoffs dramatically reduced the outlet’s representation of people of color.

Sports feature writer Sam Fortier shared a video of the moment he learned that his role would be eliminated.

High school sports editor Michael Errigo thanked local readers for their support over the years.

Mark Ein, Commanders part-owner and owner of the Washington City Paper, suggested he might be able to create some jobs for these laid-off sportswriters.

National health reporter Sabrina Malhi said she learned that she’d been laid off while feeding her newborn baby.

Arts and entertainment editor Jon Fischer lost his job, adding that the Post “slashed the bulk of its arts coverage, including most of the critics.”

I consider 2025 my finest professional year. The Post just laid me off.

— Jonathan L. Fischer (@jonfischer.bsky.social) February 4, 2026 at 10:06 AM

Books critic Ron Charles started a Substack after learning of his elimination, calling the layoffs an “impoverishing, family-wrecking, confidence-crushing ordeal.”

Jada Yuan is among the laid-off culture writers.

Don Graham, retired Post publisher and son of Watergate-era publisher Katherine Graham, wrote that he “will do anything I can to help” laid-off journalists.

He’s been reaching out to affected staffers on social media, offering to provide job leads and references.

Former executive editor Marty Baron told The Guardian that he believes the layoffs will lead directly to canceled subscriptions, which he hopes does not result in a “death spiral” for the entire organization. He spoke with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last night, suggesting that Bezos’ pro-Trump pivot “drove readers and subscribers away.”

Another veteran Post employee, former sports columnist Sally Jenkins, slammed the “incredible incompetence and pusillanimity” of Lewis and Murray on social media yesterday. She mourned the dissolution of her former vertical in an essay for The Atlantic.

Several local leaders have condemned the shuttering of local metro and sports coverage, including DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Virginia congressman Don Beyer urged Bezos “to consider selling the Washington Post to someone who will be a better steward of this beloved and essential institution.”


Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin joined Beyer’s call.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen got his licks in, too.

Jake Tapper noted that Bezos can, uh, technically afford to keep these people on the payroll.

Randy Clarke, Metro’s general manager, lamented the cuts to local news on social media.

Maria Shriver will keep subscribing to the Post, despite her discontent with the layoffs, so the paper’s remaining journalists “can continue their work.” She encouraged her followers to do the same.

Finally, to sign us off, an illustration by local cartoonist Dennis Goris:

 

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Kate Corliss
Kate Corliss
Junior Staff Writer