Matt Murray, the top editor at the Washington Post, acknowledged a “widespread sense of loss, of genuine trauma” during a tense town hall with staff on Wednesday. The meeting came a week after the company laid off nearly a third of its employees, leaving many workers demoralised and questioning the publication’s direction.
Murray, who joined the Post in 2024, described the financial problems as a “shocking discovery” for management but said he did not want to “litigate the past”. He expressed confidence that the paper was now on a path to success, stating: “The company has been a mess in lots of ways for a long time, but I’m confident stars are aligning in a positive way.”
The cuts were based on readership data, hitting the sports, international, local and style sections particularly hard. Murray admitted some decisions may have been wrong but insisted “we got a lot of things right”. He noted that the “Trump bump” of increased readership during the first Trump administration had faded, as readers now seek both news about and escape from Donald Trump.
Jeff D’Onofrio, the acting publisher appointed after Will Lewis’s abrupt resignation on Saturday, addressed the layoffs’ aftermath. He said the Post had not tackled “deeply rooted problems” for five years and that the cuts were a decision to change the business’s scope. “We will get to the other side of this,” D’Onofrio assured staff.
Longtime employees voiced scepticism at the town hall. One veteran reporter said the newsroom had never been so demoralised, while another questioned how the Post could maintain quality after errors in the print edition. Murray responded by acknowledging the “essential question” and expressing faith in the leadership team. He deflected questions about Lewis’s departure, noting that the appointment of a new CEO should speak for itself.
