The Washington Post is laying off around 4% of its workforce, the company announced on Tuesday — the latest blow to the newspaper that has seen steep financial losses as well as an exodus of top talent from a newsroom that has grown increasingly alienated from owner Jeff Bezos and publisher Will Lewis.
The layoffs will impact fewer than 100 people throughout the newspaper’s business division, including its sales and marketing teams as well as information technology units, according to the publication.
When reached by The Post, a spokesperson for the Washington Post confirmed the Times report.
The cuts will not affect the newsroom, which reduced its headcount two years ago when the company eliminated 240 jobs.
“The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are,” the statement from the newspaper read.
“Changes across our business functions are all in service of our greater goal to best position The Post for the future.”
Last year, Lewis told staffers that the paper lost $77 million in 2023 and that its digital subscriber base fell off considerably since 2020.
Since 2021, the Washington Post has seen a 14% decline in digital revenue and a 12% drop in total revenue, according to Poynter.
In 2020, the newspaper boasted 3 million digital subscribers. But by 2023, that number shrank to 2.5 million.
While the newspaper’s website recorded 101 million unique monthly visitors in 2020, that number fell to 50 million in 2023.
The Washington Post reported operating profits of $246 million in 2018, which fell during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office.
But the election of Joe Biden ushered in a dark era for the newspaper, which attracted a large, predominantly liberal subscriber base as the publication positioned itself as adversarial to the Republican Trump.
Bezos, the billionaire Amazon founder, has sought to change the perception of his newspaper by blocking the editorial board from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
The decision angered Washington Post readers. As many as 250,000 subscribers reportedly canceled their memberships in reaction.
Two columnists, Michele Norris and Robert Kagan, resigned from the newspaper in protest while two others, Molly Roberts and David Hoffman, stepped down 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 funded by billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs.
Josh Dawsey, another highly valued political investigative reporter, is set to leave the Washington Post and take up a position with the Wall Street Journal.
Tyler Pager, a White House correspondent, is said to be “mulling a transfer” or has “already decided to exit,” according to a report by Puck News.
Ann Telnaes, a longtime cartoonist with the Washington Post, announced that she quit the newspaper in protest over the decision to spike an illustration that mocked Bezos as subservient to Trump.
In June, Sally Buzbee, the executive editor, left the publication — as did managing editor Matea Gold.
The moves were part of a restructuring of the newsroom under Lewis, whose tenure has been a rocky one marred with staffer dissatisfaction over his leadership style.
