By Ahmet Salih Alacaci
WASHINGTON (AA) - The Washington Post on Wednesday began laying off hundreds of journalists as part of sweeping cuts expected to reduce the company’s total workforce by nearly one-third, according to reports and staff affected by the decision.
The layoffs affect nearly all newsroom departments and will sharply scale back the paper’s local, international, and sports coverage. Citing people with knowledge on the decision, The New York Times reported that more than 300 of the roughly 800 journalists in the newsroom are being cut, alongside reductions on the business side.
In a memo to staff and during a newsroom-wide Zoom call, Executive Editor Matt Murray described the move as a necessary effort to reposition the paper amid financial strain, declining search traffic, and rapid changes driven by artificial intelligence.
Murray said The Post had become “too rooted in a different era” and acknowledged that online search traffic had fallen by nearly half over the past three years, a point also reported by the New York Times.
Murray said the sports department would be closed in its current form, with some reporters reassigned to features coverage.
He said the Metro desk would be restructured, the Books section would close, and the paper’s daily news podcast, Post Reports, would be suspended.
International coverage will be reduced, with reporters and editors laid off in the Middle East, India and Australia, the New York Times reported.
Washington Post Cairo bureau chief Claire Parker posted on the US social media company X that she and the entire Middle East reporting team had been part of the layoffs.
In a statement, The Washington Post Guild said the layoffs would weaken the newspaper’s credibility and mission.
“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,” it said, adding that the guild “vehemently opposes” any further staff reductions.
Inviting readers and others to attend a “Save The Post” rally on Thursday, the statement said if the daily’s current owner, Amazon founder 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.”
Former Executive Editor Marty Baron called the cuts one of “the darkest days” in the paper’s history, warning that the reductions would sharply diminish The Post’s journalistic ambitions.