The sweeping job cuts were carried out Wednesday morning, with employees instructed to “stay home today” while termination notices were issued. Post owner Jeff Bezos did not immediately comment on the layoffs.
Bezos has been pressuring the newspaper’s leadership to return the publication to profitability, but his approach has drawn sharp criticism from journalists who question both his strategy and motivations.
“Bezos is not trying to save The Washington Post. He’s trying to survive Donald Trump,” former Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote in a recent column.
Bezos-Trump Straining Relations
The layoffs come amid increasingly complex ties between Bezos, Amazon, and the Trump administration. Earlier this week, Bezos hosted U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at Blue Origin, the aerospace company he owns.
In an internal memo, executive editor Matt Murray confirmed that the cuts include “substantial newsroom reductions impacting nearly all news departments.”
According to sources at the paper, the Metro desk has been dramatically reduced, the Sports section has been almost entirely shut down, the Books section closed, and the daily Post Reports podcast cancelled. International coverage is also being scaled back, though some foreign bureaus will remain as part of what Murray described as a “strategic overseas presence.”
Murray said the restructuring was intended to “secure our future in service of our journalistic mission,” a claim that was met with widespread skepticism among staff.
