Hundreds of Post journalists \u2013 including most of its overseas, local and sports staff \u2013 were let go in the sweeping cuts announced on Tuesday (local time).<\/p>\n
The Post did not disclose the number of jobs being eliminated, but the New York Times reported about 300 of its 800 journalists were laid off.<\/p>\n
The paper\u2019s entire Middle East roster was let go, as was its Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent as the war with Russia grinds on.<\/p>\n
Sports, graphics and local news departments were sharply scaled back and the paper\u2019s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended, local media reported.<\/p>\n
Hundreds turned out on Thursday (local time) at a protest in front of the paper\u2019s headquarters in downtown Washington.<\/p>\n
Editorial interference<\/p>\n
Newspapers across the country have cratered under falling revenues and subscriptions as they compete for eyeballs with social media, and as internet revenue pales in comparison to what print advertising once commanded.<\/p>\n
However, national papers like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have managed to weather the storm and come out financially solid \u2013 something the Post, even with a billionaire backer, has failed to do.<\/p>\n
In Lewis\u2019 note to staff, shared on X (formerly Twitter) by White House bureau chief Matt Viser, Lewis said \u201cdifficult decisions have been taken\u201d during his tenure \u201cin order to ensure the sustainable future of the Post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bezos, one of the world\u2019s richest people, and Lewis have come under scrutiny for intervening directly in the paper\u2019s editorial processes.<\/p>\n
Bezos reined in the newspaper\u2019s liberal-leaning editorial page and blocked an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris days before the 2024 election \u2013 breaking the so-called firewall of editorial independence.<\/p>\n
He was widely seen as bowing to Republican Donald Trump, who went on to win that election.<\/p>\n
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that 250,000 digital subscribers left the Post after it refrained from endorsing Harris, and the paper lost around US$100 million ($166m) in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues fell.<\/p>\n
Marty Baron, the Post\u2019s executive editor until 2021, said that the job cuts ranked \u201camong the darkest days in the history of one of the world\u2019s greatest news organisations\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2013 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Post journalists \u2013 including most of its overseas, local and sports staff \u2013 were let go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,414,534,95,137569,44440,13475,138,3500,10666,4731,106688,29242,311,1454,11540,3112,5511,2845,27494,1362,111,21031,139,69,3111,16348,1523,7497,3117,26268,6289,3048,26533,1361,2988,1533],"class_list":["post-273123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-amazon","tag-amid","tag-and","tag-angered","tag-bezos","tag-billionaire","tag-business","tag-ceo","tag-cuts","tag-days","tag-drastic","tag-effective","tag-founder","tag-immediately","tag-jeff","tag-job","tag-just","tag-leaving","tag-lewis","tag-made","tag-new-zealand","tag-newspaper","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-out","tag-outrage","tag-over","tag-owned","tag-post","tag-publisher","tag-readers","tag-said","tag-storied","tag-that","tag-washington","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}