Washington Post Braces for Massive Layoffs

Last week there were reports that a big round of layoffs was about to be unveiled at the Washington Post. Some stores suggested the entire Sports staff was going to be removed.

Staffers at The Post are questioning Bezos and publisher Will Lewis’ commitment to the health of the paper—and publicly pleading for them to change course—as they brace for upwards of 100 newsroom layoffs that are expected to hit the sports, metro and foreign teams hardest, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. As of August, the newsroom headcount sat around 800 staffers. Including those anticipated newsroom cuts, as many as 300 Post employees across the broader company could be impacted by the February trim-down, Status has learned.

Spokespersons for The Post did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

“The newsroom is being punished for absolute incompetence from the owner and publisher,” one Post staffer said.

The report goes on to say that the Post would not be sending a team of reporters to cover the Winter Olympics despite having already paid for their travel and lodging. But a new story from the NY Times says the Post is reversing course on that decision though it will only be sending a handful of reporters.

The newspaper originally intended to send more than a dozen journalists to cover the event, which has long been a major priority for The Post. Those employees were notified in a terse email on Friday, less than three weeks before the Olympics begin, that The Post would not send any of them.

Now, The Post expects to send four journalists, according to three people with knowledge of the decision. A spokeswoman for The Post confirmed the paper would be sending a small contingent.

Also worried about the cuts are the paper’s foreign correspondents. The have sent a collective letter to Jeff Bezos asking him to, essentially, keep pouring money into the paper. Erik Wemple tweeted out the letter yesterday:

It says that The Post’s “award-winning international team regularly scoops and outshines the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other major news outlets, despite already having significantly fewer reporters.”

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 25, 2026

The letter says that the staffers are committed to cutting costs while working to retain “as many jobs as we can.” It also mentions the key role of local staff overseas, whose “language skills and experience amplify the power of our journalism.”

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 25, 2026

There are scores of signatories, and they include senior correspondents such as Greg Miller, Anthony Faiola, Souad Mekhennet, Siobhán O’Grady, Shibani Mahtani and Yeganeh Torbati. Together they cover an astounding swath of global terrain.

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) January 25, 2026

Individual reporters are also appealing to Bezos using the hashtag #SaveThePost:

Hi @JeffBezos. We will never forget your support for our essential work documenting the war in Ukraine, which still rages. Your wife has called our team “badass beacons of hope.” We risk our lives for the stories our readers demand. Please believe in us and #SaveThePost. pic.twitter.com/LH8lyGiU6M

— Siobhán O’Grady (@siobhan_ogrady) January 26, 2026

.@jeffbezos I cover Iran for @washingtonpost. Since June, I’ve reported on US/Israeli strikes, a dire water crisis, state coercion of the private sector, and now, horrific govt violence against protesters. I want nothing more than to keep doing this important work. #SaveThePost pic.twitter.com/lb8Qe56L1k

— Yeganeh Torbati (@yjtorbati) January 26, 2026

.@JeffBezos I cover international security for @washingtonpost and reported on ISIS, Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, al-Qaeda, Iran and Israel. I’ve been imprisoned, lived under threats, and escaped kidnappings to do this work. #Journalism matters to America and the world. #SaveThePost pic.twitter.com/mDxmM4qX9g

— Souad Mekhennet (@smekhennet) January 26, 2026

We’re not perfect, but hundreds of us at The @washingtonpost bust our butts daily to bring you facts, expertise and context about your government & other powerful institutions, incredibly important foreign reporting and journalism you AREN’T GETTING ANYWHERE ELSE #SaveThePost

— Michelle Boorstein (@mboorstein) January 26, 2026

I’ve driven into hurricanes, trekked through jungles and camped on an ice sheet in sub-zero temperatures to bring you news about climate change.

If you value this work, and everything else you read in @washingtonpost, help us send a message to @JeffBezos: #SavethePost pic.twitter.com/FL0FLm7vwO

— Sarah Kaplan (@sarahkaplan48) January 26, 2026

It’s a dream working in Sports at The Washington Post. We take pride in our work and do our best to deliver compelling coverage you can’t find anywhere else. If that means something to you now is a good time to let everyone know. #SaveThePost

— Neil Greenberg (@ngreenberg) January 26, 2026

You can’t blame people for pushing to keep their jobs, but some of the people tagging onto the hashtag are arguing that Bezos has plenty of money to burn.

.@JeffBezos spent $50M on his Venice wedding. Saving a newspaper would be cheap by comparison. But now the @washingtonpost‘s brave foreign correspondents must launch a #SaveThePost campaign, amid rumored devastating cuts that amount to a mere rounding error to Bezos. https://t.co/XyHAuJ2Mwl

— Katherine Eban (@KatherineEban) January 26, 2026

In fact, $50 million would not begin to save the Post. Bezos has spent more than that each year keeping it afloat. In 2023 the paper lost about $77million. In 2024, it reportedly lost $100 million.

The Washington Post lost around $100 million in 2024 as top journalists defected to the publication’s competitors, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

That figure is reportedly approximately 30% greater than The Post’s losses in 2023. Advertising revenue at the publication also fell from $190 million to $174 million, WSJ wrote.

These losses are reportedly compounded by The Post also losing a significant number of digital subscribers. At least 250,000 people canceled their subscriptions after The Post chose not to issue an endorsement in the 2024 presidential election, breaking a longstanding pattern, the paper reported in October.

What were the losses in 2025? We don’t know but probably similar to 2024. In other words, Bezos has probably spent more than a quarter billion dollars keeping the paper going for just 3 years. And my guess is that all the metrics are going in the wrong direction. In other words, there’s no end in sight to the losses. But the staff reaction to his attempt to stop the bleeding is that he’s not a good steward.

A top Post reporter tells me “there’s now a strong sense” across the newsroom “that neither Jeff Bezos nor Will Lewis are serious, good-faith stewards of The Washington Post.” pic.twitter.com/ORtFdFmWbD

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 26, 2026

Thanks for the $300 million, Jeff, but you suck!

Some of this is definitely self-inflicted. The paper was making a profit during Trump’s first term because it went all in on resistance journalism. It had a staff of progressive voices that became well known on the anti-Trump left. So when there was no Trump to bash starting in 2020, readership declined. Then when Bezos demanded a bit more neutrality from the paper (canceling an endorsement of Kamala Harris) a quarter millions progressive subscribers cut them off. Simply put, the Post made itself a paper that catered to the far left and readers came to expect that. There’s no going back without angering a lot of those people and losing their support. That’s where things are now.

The layoffs are expected to happen in early February, so expect more on this by next week.

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