The Washington Post announced a “significant staff reduction” on Wednesday morning after telling staff to stay home for a Zoom webinar beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET. The company said it’s eliminating or restructuring numerous departments, including international, sports and its books departments.
Specific layoff numbers were not initially available.
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The announcement
“The actions we are taking include a broad strategic reset with a significant staff reduction,” Matt Murray, The Post’s executive editor, said on the call, according to The New York Times.
Murray went on to say Wednesday’s efforts were about “positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives, and what is becoming a more crowded, competitive and complicated media landscape, and after some years when, candidly, the Post has had struggles to do that.”
He said The Post would close the sports department “in its current form,” but would retain several reporters to join features and cover sports in a new way.
He added that the organization was dismantling its book section, suspending the Post Reports podcast, shrinking its international footprint and restructuring its metro section.
He noted that the international department, however, would still retain reporters in nearly a dozen locations.
When it comes to the “why” of it all, Murray said The Post had lost too much money over too long a period and had not been meeting its readers’ needs. He added that the company is also making cuts on the business side of things.
“We must work together to become nimbler, and to find new ways of working and innovating to understand what our customers want more of and what they want less of,” Murray said, noting every department will feel the effects.
He said that, at the end of the day, The Post would focus more on national news, politics, business and health.
Former staffers take to social media
Following Wednesday’s news, journalists who were laid off took to social media to share their thoughts and stories.
One of The Post’s breaking news reports based out of London posted to X saying, “Weeks shy of my 10 year anniversary at The Washington Post and my heart is breaking.”
A sportswriter posted a message of his own, saying, “It’s official: my time with The Washington Post has come to an end. If any media outlet needs a data-driven sportswriter who can produce millions of page views, let me know. March Madness is coming up.”
Most notable, however, was a statement from former editor Marty Baron, who said, “this ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”
Baron retired from The Post in 2021, but made stark statements about Bezos, and declarations he made while Baron was still working there.
“He [Bezos] often declared that The Post’s success would be among the proudest achievements of his life. I wish I detected the same spirit today,” Baron said in his statement.
He blamed some of the changes on Bezos’ relationship with President Donald Trump, saying, “Bezos’ sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump have left an especially ugly stain of their own.”
Prior rumors
The reduction comes after weeks of rumors that changes and layoffs were forthcoming. Just last week, journalists from The Post took to X and pleaded with The Post owner Jeff Bezos to #SaveThePost, explaining why the foreign correspondents’ work, specifically, is important to The Post’s reporting.
Bezos purchased the organization in 2013 for $250 million. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2025.
Before Wednesday’s announcement, The Post’s staff circulated estimates that at least 100 roles would be cut, representing more than 10% of the newsroom. Other reports suggested the numbers could be closer to 300.
The Post did not address the rumors, either to confirm or deny the speculation, until Wednesday. However, a person with direct knowledge of The Post’s strategy previously said its leadership was taking steps to “save the organization,” according to The Times.
