The Washington Post is instructing its staff to stay home on Wednesday, February 4th, and join a Zoom webinar, with plans to announce a large-scale layoff. According to Fox News, Executive Editor Matt Murray and Human Resources Director Wayne Connell wrote in a memo, “We will be announcing significant actions within the company today. We ask everyone to stay at home this morning and join a Zoom webinar at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to share details. We will send out detailed invitations later this morning. Please make every effort to attend.”
Washington Post employees have been launching a strong offensive against their billionaire boss Jeff Bezos on the social platform X, urging him to save the newspaper.
The newspaper suffered losses of about $77 million in 2024, and the deficit in 2025 further expanded to over $100 million due to subscriber losses. It is expected that the sports department will be heavily impacted by the layoffs. Fox News reported last week that the company may cut approximately 300 employees. The newspaper has decided to stop comprehensive coverage of non-core areas such as the Olympics.
According to The Guardian, the Metro and Foreign desk sections will also face significant cuts, with several senior foreign correspondents being told to suspend travel. This signifies CEO Will Lewis’s plans for a “Strategic Reset” of the newspaper.
Around 60 international correspondents have jointly written to the management expressing their protest. Additionally, the Books section is also expected to be discontinued in this reorganization.
The employee union is planning to hold a protest rally outside The Washington Post’s headquarters on K Street this Thursday, February 5th. The Post Guild, representing hundreds of employees, released a statement strongly opposing any further cuts, believing it will render the newspaper “irrelevant.”
This is an ongoing story, and more updates will follow…