White House reporters at The Washington Post have joined a growing chorus of staff urging owner Jeff Bezos to halt sweeping layoffs expected next month. In a letter reported by Semafor on Thursday, the team highlighted their reliance on other desks that may face cuts, including sports, arts, metro and foreign news.
The layoffs, rumoured to affect over 100 newsroom employees and up to 300 staff company-wide, have sparked a social media campaign under the hashtag #SaveThePost. Foreign correspondents previously sent a collective plea warning of “irrelevance and later extinction” if cuts proceed.
The White House team, which is not expected to be affected, wrote: “Given the uncertainty facing the Post, we wanted to tell you directly how the White House team relies on other desks… A diversified Washington Post helps us win back former subscribers and draw in new readers.”
Staff are bypassing embattled publisher and CEO Will Lewis to appeal directly to Bezos. The paper has struggled with declining revenues, exacerbated by Bezos’s decision to block an endorsement of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and a shift to conservative-leaning opinion content, leading to hundreds of thousands of subscription cancellations.
One veteran correspondent told CNN: “There’s now a strong sense that neither Jeff Bezos nor Will Lewis are serious, good-faith stewards… they drove us into a ditch with their decisions.” Another source said the paper is “on life support” due to a lack of vision.
