The Washington Post announced Tuesday that it will lay off about 4% of its employees. It's the latest blow to the paper, which has seen huge financial losses as well as an exodus of top talent from a newsroom increasingly estranged from owner Jeff. Bezos and publisher Will Lewis.
The paper said the job cuts will affect fewer than 100 people across its business units, including sales, marketing and IT departments.
When contacted by the newspaper, a Washington Post spokesperson confirmed the Times report.
The layoffs will not affect the newsroom, which was cut two years ago when it cut 240 jobs.
“The Washington Post continues to transform to meet the needs of our industry, build a more sustainable future, and reach our audiences,” the newspaper's statement said.
“All changes across our business functions contribute to our larger goal of best positioning the post for the future.”
Last year, Lewis told staff the paper would lose $77 million in 2023 and its digital subscriber base had declined significantly since 2020.
Since 2021, The Washington Post's digital revenue has decreased by 14% and total revenue has decreased by 12%. According to Pointer.
In 2020, the newspaper had 3 million digital subscribers. But by 2023; That number has fallen to 2.5 million.
The newspaper's website had 101 million monthly unique visitors in 2020, but that number dropped to 50 million in 2023.
The Washington Post reported operating profits of $246 million in 2018, which declined during President-elect Donald Trump's first term.
But Joe Biden's election ushered in dark times for the paper, which positioned itself as an opponent of Republican Trump and attracted a large subscriber base of mostly liberals.
Billionaire Amazon founder Bezos is trying to change the paper's perception by blocking its editorial board from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris in the weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
The decision angered Washington Post readers. Reportedly, as many as 250,000 subscribers canceled their memberships in response.
Two columnists, Michelle Norris and Robert Kagan, resigned from the paper in protest, and two others, Molly Roberts and David Hoffman, resigned 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 backed by billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs.
Josh Dorsey, another highly regarded political investigative reporter, is leaving the Washington Post to join the Wall Street Journal.
Pac News reports that White House correspondent Tyler Pager is said to be “considering a move” or “already decided to leave.”
Ann Ternas, a longtime cartoonist at the Washington Post, announced that she is quitting the paper in protest of the paper's decision to publish an illustration mocking Bezos as submissive to Trump.
In June, editor-in-chief Sally Buzbee left the magazine, as did editor-in-chief Mattea Gold.
The move was part of a newsroom reorganization under Mr. Lewis, whose tenure was marred by staff dissatisfaction with his leadership style and was a difficult period.
