Washington Post Begins Sweeping Layoffs Amid Revenue Decline

The Washington Post announced sweeping layoffs Wednesday, with cuts expected to greatly reduce some coverage areas at the storied 150-year-old newspaper.

The job losses primarily affect sports, books and the company’s podcast unit, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos since 2013, previously laid off about 4% of its staff roughly a year ago, though those cuts did not affect the newsroom.

Bezos, who purchased the Post for $250 million, currently boasts a net worth of about $260 billion, making him the fourth-richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

In response to the announcement, the Washington Post Guild, which represents hundreds of newsroom employees, said, “These layoffs are not inevitable. A newsroom cannot be hollowed out without consequences of its credibility, its reach and its future.”

“In just the last three years, the Post’s workforce has shrunk by roughly 400 people. Continuing to eliminate workers only stands to weaken the newspaper, drive away readers and undercut The Post’s mission: to hold power to account without fear or favor and provide critical information for communities across the region, country and world.”

The announcement follows recent scrutiny over newsroom budget decisions, including the paper’s shifting plans around Winter Olympics coverage.

As first reported by The New York Times, the paper initially told more than a dozen journalists it would no longer send them to cover the Winter Olympics in Italy, less than three weeks before the Games were set to begin. After public criticism, including from prominent sports journalists, the paper reversed course again and now expects to send four reporters, NBC News confirmed.

In a statement, former Washington Post editor Marty Baron said Wednesday’s announcement “ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”

And ahead of the layoffs, members from the Post’s local desk wrote in an open letter dated Jan. 27 to Bezos that they had been warned their section would be “decimated” and left “unrecognizable,” urging leadership to preserve the paper’s local coverage.

Similarly, the guild had also warned in the days leading up to Wednesday’s announcement that the cuts could “potentially leave our newsroom even smaller than the one [Bezos] purchased — and losing twice as much money.”

Several journalists confirmed in posts on X that they were among the layoffs. They include: Caroline O’Donovan, who covers Amazon at the Post; Nicole Asbury, an impacted education reporter covering Maryland; and Emmanuel Felton, a race and ethnicity reporter, who wrote, “this wasn’t a financial decision, it was an ideological one.”

The media industry has entered a broader period of reckoning, with both legacy players — from broadcast giants to newspapers — and digital outlets grappling with rising costs and debt-ridden balance sheets as audiences shift how they consume news.

Declining advertising revenue and intensifying competition have pushed companies to accelerate cost-cutting moves and restructure plans across the industry.

As a result, recent years have been marked by repeated rounds of layoffs and consolidation as media companies attempt to realign their businesses with a rapidly evolving landscape.

Most recently, Netflix has moved to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery as consolidation pressures intensify, while rival Paramount Global continues to pursue its own bid after merging with Skydance Media last year. CBS, under the new leadership of Bari Weiss, is also seeking to reinvent itself and has reportedly been considering additional layoffs.

But signs of strain across the industry have been building for years. Disney underwent a major restructuring in 2023, cutting roughly 7,000 jobs and reorganizing the business ahead of a planned CEO transition later this year.

Legacy newspapers outside of the Post, have also been hit hard. The Los Angeles Times has carried out multiple rounds of layoffs in recent years, most recently enacting another 6% reduction to its newsroom in mid-2025.

The shift to digital-first platforms has not insulated news organizations from cuts, either. BuzzFeed shuttered its news division in 2023, while Vice Media filed for bankruptcy the same year. Business Insider also recently cut more than 20% of its workforce as it scaled back in some areas, while simultaneously accelerating its adoption of artificial intelligence — another area of investment permanently reshaping the industry.

And last year, as its corporate parent Comcast prepared to spin off its cable channels as Versant, NBC News Group laid off about 150 employees, representing about 2% of its workforce.