On Wednesday, Feb. 4, the Washington Post laid off hundreds of employees from various sections and teams. The amount of employees laid off is estimated to be one third of the entire staff. Matt Murray, the publication’s editor in chief, declared these changes to be a “strategic reset” in a staff-wide Zoom call.
A multitude of reporters that assisted in keeping the Post a diverse publication have been axed, such as the sports desk and international desks. Lizzie Johnson, the Washington Post’s Ukraine correspondent, posted on X that she got laid off “in the middle of a warzone” and “has no words.” Foreign coverage is said to lessen by about eight locations. In addition to this, the “Post Reports” podcast has been fully discontinued. Employees who have been laid off have the ability to continue as staff until April 10, although they have no requirement to work.
Murray has stated in interviews that the largest portion of the Post team will be lessening their creative focus and instead shifting towards political and government-based areas, alongside topics such as business and health. He spoke in defense of owner Jeff Bezos, during a CNN interview, describing the owner’s plans for the publication to be centered around a vision of “a bigger, relevant, thriving institution.”
The layoffs have led to an increase of employee statements and letters against the action. Many anonymous writers have come to news sources detailing the harshness of the layoffs, with one unnamed reporter calling it a “bloodbath.”
Despite the rather abrupt approach of the event, the Post has not been without its previous challenges. After two voluntary buyouts in 2023 and 2025, a significant amount of staff left the newsroom. Additionally, the lack of endorsement for a presidential candidate in 2024 led to extremely large numbers of unsubscribers, further impacting views of the paper’s journalism, credibility, and values. Since 2024, visits to The Washington Post website have gone down – there were 1.15 billion visits in 2025 in comparison to 2024’s 1.23 billion.
A good amount of criticism is being directed at Bezos, who has owned The Washington Post since 2013. Bezos himself has stayed silent in regards to the layoffs. Martin Baron, who previously served as the publication’s executive editor up until 2021, is one of many voices against Bezos’ choice to not speak up. Baron in particular believes that a large part of the Post’s current problems have to do with Bezos shifting focus to his other business ventures. Also being targeted is the current publisher, Will Lewis, who chose not to speak on the Zoom call in a move that an anonymous employee called “embarrassing to say the least.”
The previous owner of the publication, Don Graham, shared his sadness regarding the layoffs.
“It’s a bad day. I am sad that so many excellent reporters and editors—and old friends—are losing their jobs,” Graham wrote in a Facebook post. “My first concern is for them; I will do anything I can to help.”
In addition to this, Graham has replied to laid-off employees who have spoken out, offering aid for future employment opportunities.
The activism of those laid off is not going unnoticed. The hashtag #SaveThePost – a phrase that was first uttered by Jeff Bezos at the beginning of his ownership – is trending in online posts by employees. In a social media post, the Post’s foreign correspondents argued that “cutting this deeply sourced, battle hardened and tireless staff would hinder the Post’s ability to respond to the biggest news developments on the horizon.” The Post Guild, a union aiming for staff representation, participated in a protest in front of the publication’s Washington D.C. headquarters on Thursday, Feb. 5.
Currently, the future of support for The Washington Post seems bleak. Baron, among his Bezos-related criticism, also publicized his anger and sadness for the employees. He declared that the event “ranks among the darkest days in history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations,” and that the paper’s “ambitions will be sharply diminished . . . depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting . . . that is needed more than ever.”However, the voices of current and laid-off reporters and employees continue to hold strong. In a statement from The Post Guild, the union proves that they will continue to fight back “if Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, then The Post deserves a steward that will.”
