Crisis deepens at Washington Post amid staff cuts and unrest
The owner of the "Washington Post," Jeff Bezos, announced the redundancy of about four per cent of the newspaper's staff, equating to nearly 100 people, reported the BBC News portal on Wednesday. Media outlets suggest this decision will likely worsen the already severe crisis within the well-known newspaper's editorial office.
According to the BBC, the job cuts at the "Washington Post" are expected to affect mainly employees responsible for the newspaper's financial performance. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, explained the necessity of redundancies as a measure to curb the newspaper's increasing losses.
Competing media have highlighted that the announcement of redundancies at the "Washington Post" coincides with significant turmoil within the editorial office.
Over the weekend, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from the newspaper. She took this step in protest against the paper's refusal to publish her cartoon, which depicted Bezos and other American business magnates kneeling before a statue of President-elect Donald Trump.
Prestigious newspaper in crisis
The crisis within the newspaper and its surroundings has escalated for over a year. In 2023, the "Washington Post" recorded losses of approximately £63 million and experienced a notable decline in online readers, with these trends worsening over the past year.
Additionally, in response to the newspaper's failure to explicitly endorse Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris during the U.S. presidential election campaign, 250,000 subscribers cancelled their subscriptions. In protest, several prominent journalists, including Editor-in-Chief Matea Gold and investigative reporter Josh Dawsey, also left the newspaper. Bezos explained then that he made this decision to avoid furthering media bias.
The BBC highlights that last month, the owner of Amazon announced his company would donate £830,000 to Trump's inaugural fund.
