Ex-Washington Post fact checker hits absentee owner Jeff Bezos
Former Washington Post face checker Glenn Kessler spoke with Fox News Digital about the papers "absentee owner" Jeff Bezos and the challenges the news outlet faces.
The Washington Post announced widely expected, significant layoffs on Wednesday, with entire departments being shuttered in what the company is calling a "significant restructuring."
On a webinar with Post employees who were asked to stay home, executive editor Matt Murray announced a significant headcount reduction. The Post is shuttering the sports desk in its current form, dialing back its international footprint, making Metro more "nimble and focused" and eliminating Books. A third of the company has been affected, Fox News Digital has learned.
"The Washington Post is taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future, in what amounts to a significant restructuring across the company. These steps are designed to strengthen our footing and sharpen our focus on delivering the distinctive journalism that sets The Post apart and, most importantly, engages our customers," a Washington Post spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The Washington Post instructed employees to stay home on Wednesday and attend a Zoom webinar where significant layoffs were announced, and entire departments were shuttered. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
Going forward, the Washington Post will cover sports simply as a "cultural phenomenon."
Impacted employees will receive an email about their fate. Staffers are "in shock," despite knowing layoffs were expected for weeks.
"This is the end of the institution. They’ve lost the trust of the newsroom. Anyone who wasn’t laid off today will be looking for a new job," a Washington Post insider told Fox News Digital.
Murray sent a memo to newsroom staffers following the Zoom.
"As we shared in our live stream earlier, the company is taking actions today to place The Washington Post on a stronger footing and better position us in this rapidly changing era of new technologies and evolving user habits," Murray wrote in the memo obtained by Fox News Digital.
"These moves include substantial newsroom reductions impacting nearly all news departments," Murray added. "For the immediate future, we will concentrate on areas that demonstrate authority, distinctiveness, and impact and that resonate with readers: politics, national affairs, people, power and trends; national security in DC and abroad; forces shaping the future including science, health, medicine, technology, climate, and business; journalism that empowers people to take action, from advice to wellness; revelatory investigations; and what’s capturing attention in culture, online, and in daily life."
Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray. (Robert Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Murray said his team will meet with leaders in each department to review the impact on their teams.
"Today’s news is painful. These are difficult actions. We are proud of, and grateful for, the many valued colleagues whose talents and passion have contributed to The Post over many years," Murray wrote.
"But we take them with clarity of purpose. The need has never been more urgent to reposition The Post. A more flexible, sustainable model will help us better navigate unprecedented volatility, competition, technological change, news-consumption habits, and cost pressure," he added. "As you know, we have grappled with financial challenges for some time. They have affected us in multiple rounds of cost cuts and buyouts, along with periodic constraints on other kinds of spending."
Murray said leadership "concluded that the company’s structure is too rooted in a different era, when we were a dominant, local print product" and the restructure will "help to secure our future in service of our journalistic mission and provide us stability moving forward."
"We are far from alone in reevaluating our model or rethinking how we operate. The ecosystem of news and information, on- and off-platform, is changing radically. News consumers enjoy more variety, voices, platforms, and options than ever before. In just the last five years, multiple startups—and even individuals—have created meaningful products that draw attention and generate impact at low cost," Murray wrote.
Billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. (Getty Images)
Murray said the Post has already taken "long overdue steps toward reinvention," including embedding audience strategy editors in every department.
"Today’s moves will put us in position to find and develop better ways to connect Post journalism to news consumers in the ways they want," Murray wrote.
"This work is difficult, but it is essential. The Post is a necessary institution, and it must remain relevant," he continued. "Our central purpose remains as it ever was: To produce riveting and distinct journalism of the highest caliber that breaks news, explains the world with authority and fairness, empowers people with knowledge, and helps them live better-informed lives."
Washington Post staffers have been aggressively tweeting at billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, urging him to save the paper. A Washington Post insider pointed out that staffers were "leaving on their own accord," even before the cuts were formally announced, citing three who recently fled to the Post's top rival, The New York Times.
The Times announced Wednesday it had added 1.4 million digital-only subscribers in 2025, including about 450,000 in the last quarter of the year, and now has nearly 13 million total subscribers. It also reported more than $800 million in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025.
After recent huge losses, Post leadership has been working for the past two years to get its financials in order with a goal of breaking even by the end of 2026. The headcount reduction is seen as a critical part of that plan.
As the webinar wrapped, The Washington Post Guild took to social media to announce a #SaveThePost rally that will take place on Thursday.
"These layoffs are not inevitable," the Guild said. "A newsroom cannot be hollowed out without consequences for its credibility, reach and its future."
Numerous, now-former Washington Post journalists have taken to social media to announce they’ve been let go, including Iran correspondent Yeganeh Torbati, New Delhi bureau chief Pranshu Verma, Cairo bureau chief Claire Parker, political features writer Jesus Rodriguez, book critic Ron Charles, Ukraine correspondent Lizzie Johnson, editor Missy Khamvongsa, arts reporter Sonia Rao, Virginia schools reporter Karina Elwood and international investigative correspondent Shibani Mahtani.
National culture writer Jada Yuan, who was let go, wrote that she "officially reached the crying stage of layoffs" and noted that some impacted employees have newborns and others are in war zones.
Former Washington Post publisher Don Graham called it a "bad day," but suggested he has confidence in Murray's leadership.
"I am sad that so many excellent reporters and editors—and old friends—are losing their jobs. My first concern is for them; I will do anything I can to help. I will have to learn a new way to read the paper, since I have started with the sports page since the late 1940’s. I will always want the Washington Post to succeed—and you should too. It makes a difference. The paper has another strong, stand-up editor in Matt Murray. And it still has a great staff," Graham wrote on Facebook.
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