The Washington Post began laying off more than 300 journalists on Tuesday, marking one of the largest single-day newsroom cuts in American media history. The layoffs represent roughly 10% of the total workforce at the storied newspaper and underscore the brutal economics facing legacy media.
Let's talk about what this really means. Jeff Bezos bought the Post in 2013 for $250 million, promising to invest in quality journalism and digital transformation. Fast forward to 2026, and the Post is hemorrhaging cash. The paper reportedly lost $77 million in 2025, despite Bezos's deep pockets.
The cuts hit across departments: investigative reporting, foreign bureaus, features, and digital. These aren't peripheral positions. These are experienced journalists covering Washington, national politics, and international affairs. The kind of reporters who break stories that matter.
Why now? Digital advertising revenue has collapsed industry-wide. Subscription growth has plateaued. The Post peaked at around 3 million digital subscribers in 2020-2021, but that number has slipped as pandemic-era engagement faded. Meanwhile, production costs remain stubbornly high.
Publisher Will Lewis has been signaling these cuts for months, pushing a "modernization" strategy that focuses on fewer, higher-impact stories. Translation: do more with less. It's the same playbook we've seen at other outlets, and it rarely works as advertised.
The broader context: journalism is in crisis. The Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and dozens of regional papers have announced cuts in recent months. An estimated 2,500 media jobs were eliminated in 2025 alone.
Cui bono? Not readers. Not democracy. Not the journalists who spent careers building institutional knowledge.
The Post's situation is particularly galling because Bezos has the resources to weather this storm. He's worth roughly $200 billion. The Post's losses are a rounding error on his wealth. But apparently, the patience has run out.
For the industry, this is a watershed moment. If one of the most well-resourced newspapers in America can't make the economics work, what hope do smaller outlets have?
