The Washington Post has announced layoffs affecting one-third of its workforce, including most of the sports and foreign news desks. The Washington Post Guild’s response was particularly notable in calling for a new owner who would simply subsidize the newspaper despite its failing revenue and readership.
As someone who once wrote regularly for the Post, I have long lamented how the newspaper became less credible and relevant as it embraced advocacy journalism. It ran raging pieces from columnists such as Phillip Bump, Taylor Lorenz, and Jennifer Rubin, who viciously attacked those with opposing views, promoted conspiracy theories or called for the end of objectivity and neutrality in journalism. Even after other publications admitted that prior stories were hoaxes, the Post stood by clearly false reporting.
Years ago, I wrote that I was baffled by how the staff believed that writing off more than half of the country through biased reporting was a workable business or journalism model.
Readers left in droves. Despite anonymous reporters attacking Jeff Bezos since he purchased the newspaper, they expected him to be a type of sugar daddy who would subsidize their brand of journalism. They were increasingly writing for each other, but they still expected Bezos to lose millions for the privilege of owning the paper.
There is a strange thing about billionaires: they tend to want to make, not lose, money.
That point was driven home brilliantly when new editors were brought in to read the riot act to the staff. Washington Post publisher and CEO Will Lewis, a former British media executive, reportedly got into a “heated exchange” with a staffer. Lewis explained that, while reporters were protesting measures to expand readership, the very survival of the paper was now at stake:
“We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around. We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
The response from staff was furious, calling for the removal of Lewis and other new editors.
If that wasn’t clear enough, management told staff months later that the sniping and obstruction had to stop. The newspaper must be able to sustain itself; if they could not get on board, they would have to leave.
Any business facing millions in losses will do two things simultaneously: work to expand sales and to reduce costs.
However, to do that, the Post must return to a journalism that most people want and value, rather than an echo chamber for MS NOW viewers.
In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, I discuss the decline of the Post and other media due in part to the embrace of advocacy journalism.
We previously discussed the release of the results of interviews with more than 75 media leaders conducted by former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward. They concluded that objectivity is now considered reactionary and even harmful. Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, said it plainly: “Objectivity has got to go.”
Saying that “Objectivity has got to go” is, of course, liberating. You can dispense with the necessities of neutrality and balance. You can cater to your “base” like columnists and opinion writers. Sharing the opposing view was dismissed as “bothsidesism.”
Once again, the management is trying to save the Post from itself. It is trying to return the newspaper to profitability, but these editors have faced continual resistance from reporters who would prefer to lose their jobs than their bias. The same drama is playing out at CBS and CNN recently.
In some ways, the only thing that might change the culture at the paper could be a staff turnover. Elon Musk showed that at Twitter, now X. Years of hiring advocates do not simply evaporate with a change in management.
The most telling response came from the Washington Post Guild, which declared:
“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, The Post deserves a steward that will.”
The question is what is “the mission.” The Post staff has driven one of the greatest newspapers in history into near insolvency by yielding to its own bias and impulses. It abandoned most readers while doing little to adapt to the new realities of the media landscape.
The only response from the Guild is that they should have a billionaire who is willing to lose money and subsidize them. It is the most self-indulgent and frankly entitled attitude that they could take at this moment.
The Post is struggling to survive, and the crew is still resisting efforts to alter the ship’s course. It is far from clear that even Jeff Bezos can save the Post, but I hope so. We need the Post and, while painful, it will need to be solvent to survive.
The WaPo reportedly lost 250,000 subscribers when the editorial board declined to endorse a presidential candidate in 2024, i.e., refused to endorse Kamala Harris.
It amazes me that the revolting employees are not fired for insubordination. Since when do the employees dictate to management?
At WAPO, the employees (or reporters) believed “they” were the management.
Uh-Oh! looks like someone didn’t get Woked-Up.
The most interesting thing about these layoffs is that they are mostly overseas correspondents, mostly in the world’s trouble spots including Ukraine.
I wonder why ???
The Washington Post has now laid off its Asia editor, its New Delhi bureau chief, its Sydney bureau chief, its Cairo bureau chief, the ENTIRE Middle East reporting team, all their China correspondents, Iran correspondents, Turkey correspondents, Ukraine correspondents, and many more. The world is becoming less America-centric by the minute while the United States is becoming more America-centric than ever.
It is just a perfect summation of our current moment that one of the most important newspapers in the history of the country – one that has actually shaped the history of the United States doesn’t think reporting on the rest of the world is of any use anymore.
What an utterly perfect encapsulation of where we have arrived.
It is now crystal clear that Bezos is following the MAGA hardliners and going silent on news from the world’s trouble spots.
The plan is to turn us into an isolationist, totalitarian hermit state, just like North Korea, as run by Trump’s great friend who sends him love letters.
The plan is to cut off all contact with, and information from the outside world
No news is great news for authoritarians.
This has been Project 2025‘s goal all along.
Destroy institutions that people have trusted and relied on for decades.
Destroy the arts, destroy the media, destroy the universities.
Bezos doesn’t care. He has all he needs as an oligarch of the US.
We are being isolated from the world on purpose.
And the ones destroying everything would rather that the outside world not know what they’re doing to us here in the US.
Not know about the concentration camps, the Gestapo, the murders.
^ This twerp shows up every day with his TDS garbage. What a moron. ^
Everything about this thread was glorious. The “project 2025” reference was chef’s kiss.
Now if they can brag on Blue Sky that they really were brilliant against JT. Such heros!
Well, you know, after much serious thought, I’m forced to accept your opinions. You are pretty dang sharp. Can’t beat your arguments. The One u despise, that lying fool, that King who can’t tie his shoes, whose lost billions many times, the man who stole more elections than the diapers you soil daily, who can’t read, orange face, who can’t add 2 and 2, who has alienated every ally who never betrayed us, the rapist, the thief, the felon, who doesn’t know what day it is, by golly u nailed it.
Pure genius. Perfect analysis! Man, you nailed it. There is a name for it. Trumpism. I got militia camped out on my driveway sportin hand operated nukes, baby. They look like sling shots. You just pull back, aim and release and you nail a town of 5-10,000 people life that.
Please seek help from a mental health professional who specializes in dealing with delusional thought.
Were you sober when you wrote that?
Some people seem to be capable of getting high on their own fumes…
You people are crazy. There’s no getting around it. I’m surprised you’re not walking the streets pushing a shopping cart full of dirty stuff and screaming at people about random stuff.
Busted! How’d u know? Was that you in the caddy yellin at us like some kind of maniac? U ran over my pinky, man
Whew! Lot of Blue Anon conspiracy theories in that one.
Rejecting objectivity is rejecting truth, rejecting reality. In short, it is mental illness.
GREAT READ AGAIN TODAY MR. TURLEY… it continues to baffle me how ‘the few/minority’ lead while the majority allow it. The minority makes the most noise and so they are heard as irritating as that is… currently the congress has a mandate by this president. The Majority elected him… handily yet we continue to have resistance. Now national polls prove… 70% of the DEMS want ID to vote… 80% REP want voter ID… 70% of the nation WANTS VOTER ID…. yet Chucky is calling it Jim Crow 2.0 again!!! DEM senators are holding up judges… unConfuse me!
All the best,
Glenco
Philip Bump was a columnist for The Washington Post based in New York.
So?
So? So what. Jon was right. He got axed, u moron.
R.I.P. ZIP code (20071)
Tis just the beginning, as Office Space is replaced by Rack Space in Super A.I. Data Centers.
So goes the Humans and in come the Bot. Evolution takes it course and victims, upon sunrise after sunrise.
AI: ( The Washington Post headquarters )
The Washington Post’s headquarters is located at One Franklin Square, 1301 K Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. The company moved to this 7-floor, 250,000 sq ft location in downtown D.C. around 2014-2015, featuring a large, modern, open-plan newsroom. The building is known for its exclusive ZIP code (20071).
Key Details About the Headquarters:
Location: 1301 K Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20071
Building: One Franklin Square (West Tower)
Features: 700-person, 400-foot-long, two-story newsroom designed for collaboration.
Previous Location: 1150 15th Street NW (occupied for decades prior to 2014).
The facility is the main hub for the newspaper’s digital, mobile, and print operations.
The Reaper Visits the Washington Post
We should not overlook former editor Marty Baron’s role in the newspaper’s predicament.
The day of reckoning finally arrived for the Washington Post. It has been known for weeks that D.C.’s primary newspaper was set for major layoffs, as it desperately seeks to reposition itself in a rapidly mutating (and shrinking) news industry.
By: Jeffrey Blehar – National Review ~ February 4, 2026
https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/02/the-reaper-visits-the-washington-post/
Great Caesar’s Ghost
The only editor and chief that can reign in those knuckleheads is Perry White.
As part of the DHS drawdown from Minneapolis, on Thursday Tom Homan ordered all 700 ICE agents leaving the city to return their signing bonuses to him in a paper bag.
In a memo sent to all departing officers, the border czar instructed them to place $50,000 into a paper bag from the restaurant chain Cava and meet him in the DHS parking lot after sundown.
“And make sure no one’s freaking filming us,” he added.
While some ICE agents grumbled about transferring their $50,000 signing bonuses to Homan, he sternly reminded them, “Taking away people’s freedom isn’t free.”
^^^craving attention for his wit; getting nothing but smirks and dismissal.
^ And how is that relevant to the Washington Post? Or are you unable to read? ^
Want to see a window into the mindset of WAPO news staff? Look no further than their (lack of) response to the ultimate finding that the Trump-Russia conspiracy to affect the results of the 2016 presidential election was a hoax. They shared the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting with the NYT for reporting this hoax as verifiable fact. After the hoax was exposed and confirmed, any self-respecting “journalist” would have returned the Prize, including the $15,000 that comes with it, or at least offered to do so. But no, not a peep from these propagandist reporters and, perhaps more importantly, not a peep from Columbia University that awards the Pulitzers. If the Prize is not voluntarily returned, the least Columbia should do is to rename the award given to WAPO and the NYT “The Pulitzer Prize for Fictional National Reporting”. What a joke. No wonder readership has plummeted.
Philip Bump was a columnist for The Washington Post based in New York.
Would’t you think the Pulitzer Prize would ask for that money back just to show the world the Pulitzer Prize meant something?
Bad news, friends: the NY Times and the slimy Atlantic are thriving. The WaPo has a business model problem as much as anything else. Apparently, liberals think the Old Gray Lady sucks better than the Washington Post.
New York Times Co. reported a surprise first-quarter loss yesterday, as the weakening economy placed pressure on already sagging ad sales.
The results came on the heels of efforts by dissident hedge-fund investors to revive the publisher’s stock price through the sale of assets or faster growth of its online properties.
Headed by Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr., the company has been struggling with an industry-wide advertising slump.
It notified employees Tuesday that it may cut jobs following failed efforts to reduce its workforce by 100 positions through voluntary buyouts.
The first-quarter loss of $335,000, or less than 1 cent per share, compared to a net profit of $23.9 million, or 17 cents, last year.
Proving how well they are doing requires examining their past. Stating net profits increased last year means nothing when previous years were a disaster. 0 plus 0 = nuthin much
Good House was doing 200 million from ad revenue alone back in the 70’s.
But Captain says the boatswains mate. There are rocks beneath the twenty foot waves but trust the crew. We can navigate our way around the rocks Captain. The route is much shorter so we will arrive much sooner to Columbia where our desire for Coca leaves to chew will soon be satiated. Everyone must get stoned so throw the Captain overboard and continue to sail through the rocky shoals. Our addiction to cocanarcissism must and will be fulfilled. Throw the sextant into the ship of fire and dance a joyful dance. Damn abandon ship! Abandon ship! May the mutineers sink to their well deserved watery grave.
TiT,
Good one!
https://x.com/mikebenzcyber/status/2019340120722141203
Mike Benz explains exactly why media is taking a dark Orwellian downturn again as censorship apparatchiks are a creeping cancer in Europe. They tried this diligently under briben bitler and almost got their way. Now it’s again thriving in Europe within the EU and they mean to push it in our faces when they get another left wing stooge in the US or before by attacking US media with censorship by means of fines and banning. These goofballs being fired at WAPO supported this and no doubt will again.
“If anything, today is about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming a more crowded, competitive and complicated media landscape,” Murray said. “And after some years when, candidly, The Post has had struggles.”
“Even as we produce much excellent work, we too often write from one perspective, for one slice of the audience,”
— Executive Editor Matt Murray
The modern left’s model for . . . well, everything, from media to NGO’s funding activism, basically the whole construct was never going to be sustainable. The great irony (though not surprising) is that these fools can’t see that their socialist ideals (i.e. using other people’s money, gaslighting, caste creation) *are already failing* and have been for some time.
As they say, there is no cure for stupid, and apparently none for privilege, either. We are not dealing with intelligence or sanity on the modern left. They are merely reaping what they’ve sown; people will only tolerate bullying for so long, and all that has transpired since Nancy ripped up the speech ( COVID, the 2020 election, and inflation alone, though there is too much more to count) through 2025 has just been a bridge too far.
The Epstein emails are showing that entire culture has likely always been exactly as depraved as we imagined for far longer. Do not allow yourself to be lied to any longer, no one can function in a bifurcated, manipulated reality.
Left off a line: No one can live that way, eventually not even those doing the manipulating. Bring back responsible parenting and accurate history and civics to save society. Journalism will only recover if we also bring back sanity and decency.
James,
Maybe getting fired will cure some of them of stupid.
They also seem to have delusions that if they just keep writing biased leftists view points some how by magic people will want to read and pay for their content. Clearly the opposite is true. People do not want to pay for their advocacy journalism. It is clear as they lose millions of dollars of money every year. They either have to change their reporting, give Americans what they want, what Americans are willing to pay for, or the paper fails. As it has been failing for years.
@Upstate
One can hope, but another facet of this is nepotism, and many of the whiniest are probably not supporting themselves anyway. We can hope their tripe is marginalized, at the least, and I personally think it is, and will continue to be. It is again astonishing that something so seemingly trivial as Elon Musk buying Twitter changed the game so profoundly. Tells us how badly it was rigged, and what a proverbial bullet we dodged.
Please Tell Me, Post columnist Philip Bump got… Bumped !
I said It long ago: (August 29, 2023)
Anonymous says: June 13, 2024 at 3:49 PM
“let’s not sugarcoat it” Philip Bump, your ass is on the line and so are the Others, as well as Mine.
Jeff Bezos owns this Rag and he’s taking it into A.I. Web 3.0 within the next decade.
A Pink-Slip will be coming your way which means your out-the-door soon.
Better get your butts moving or you’ll be working the graveyard shift in the lobby of a Motel 6.
Sugarcoat – Oh How Sweet It Is!
[Link] amazon.com/ai/services/
[Link] aws.amazon.com/ai/generative-ai/
Ref.:
Washington Post Stands by Philip Bump’s Claims on Lafayette Park, the Hunter Biden Laptop, and Other Controversial Claims [Circa: August 29, 2023]
https://jonathanturley.org/2023/08/29/washington-post-stands-by-philip-bumps-false-claims-on-lafayette-park-and-other-disproven-claims/
Additional Refs.:
Bravo, Mr. Bezos: Post Owner Calls for Newspaper to Champion Individual Freedom and Free Markets [Circa: February 27, 2025]
[Link] jonathanturley.org/2025/02/27/bravo-mr-bezos-washington-post-owner-calls-for-newspaper-to-champion-individual-freedom-and-free-market-principles/
The Media Musk? Why the Cancel Campaign Targeting Jeff Bezos Could Backfire [Circa: October 31, 2024]
[Link] jonathanturley.org/2024/10/31/the-media-musk-why-the-cancel-campaign-targeting-jeff-bezos-could-backfire/
Post Editor to Staff: Get on Board or Get Out [Circa: July 12, 2025]
[Link] jonathanturley.org/2025/07/12/washington-post-editor-to-staff-time-to-get-on-board-or-get-out/comment-page-1/
Oh Happy Days! 😇
F.Y.I. Update: Former Washington Post Columnist Philip Bump now pontificates for MS NOW
MS NOW contributor cries on air discussing family of woman killed in ICE shooting
By: Sophie Brams – The Hill ~ 01/08/26
https://thehill.com/media/5680127-renee-macklin-good-shooting-response/
Video: ‘This could have been avoided’: Protestor gets emotional over deadly Minneapolis shooting
The FBI will now solely lead the investigation into an ICE officer fatally shooting a woman in Minneapolis, denying state investigators a role in the case. MS NOW Reporter Alex Tabet is on the ground in St. Paul, Minnesota to share how the community is reacting to the incident. Former federal prosecutor Paul Butler and MS NOW Contributor and Columnist Philip Bump join Chris Jansing to discuss.
By: MS NOW – 3 weeks ago ~ Jan 8, 2026
Dear Mr. Turley, I would like to give a shout-out to Anonymous @9:47 a.m. This is stated perfectly. A big thanks to them for writing on this post.
Which one ??
There are 2 posts @9:47am
one of them is the writer of the above, who wants to draw more attention to his or her earlier post.
Solution to the Guild’s problem: Buy the paper with your members dues and run it how ever you wish. You’ll get to hire and fire anyone you wish and keep all profits for yourself. Plus it’d be a hoot to watch your own member/staff strike when the Guild can’t pay ever increasing costs.
It is always easy to spend someone else’s money. I wonder if their own money is where their mouth is, do they blink?
The Union is probably hoping the Democrats retake power and make newspapers wards of the Federal Government. They floated this idea back in 2009, and will probably do it the next time they retake power.
Perhaps, Andrew. Still, it’ll be an uphill struggle though. Trump had nearly all Labor and Law Enforcement unions support in 2024 due to “Donkeys in Power Forever!” turning against their their own dues-paying members and their livelihoods for 4 consecutive years. Media and Hollywood Guilds are in tatters, numbers-wise, because voters are not watching their DIE indocrinational videos en mass any longer. Teachers unions might still favor the Blues, but their membership ranks are shrinking as well do to parents having the option (and nerve!) to move their kids out of Government Schools, Inc.
It is a shame such a once great paper has come to this. Same could be said about most of MSM. They are simply not worth reading let alone paying money for. Write them off. Most of the country has.
Meanwhile, independent news continues to deliver what Americans want and are willing to pay for.
That over-generalized statement makes no sense.
Question? Have you read the Post recently?
Question: What do Americans want?
What is exaclty “independent” news to you? You don’t think Fox News is biased or objective? Because last time I checked Fox News IS MSM too. They have been with us long enough to be considered mainstream. No?
Not really. Fox News is a premium channel you must pay for. I think of MSM as broadcast news, totally supported by advertising, and all of it is leftist.
No? RIght? I thought you were smarter than that, X
UpstateFarmer
The problem with your statement is obvious.
You say that “independent news delivers want Americans want”.
If you are only willing to listen to what you “what you want to hear” then by your OWN admission you are living in a bubble, an echo chamber, and are unwilling to consider alternative views.
That is pretty much the definition of a cult, BY YOUR OWN ADMISSION.
So, Anon, in your opinion, a news outlet that exhibits overwhelmingly Leftist bias in a nation that is, by all indications, closer to 50:50, delivers what America wants?
Ano
you are living in a bubble, an echo chamber
_____________________________
Yes, we remember Russia, Russia. Then Hunter and his laptop. Talk about a Echo chamber.
Good points Upstate. At some point, claims about “bias” or “advocacy” become empty unless you specify toward what standards. Advocacy journalism, by itself, is meaningless without identifying what is being advocated. The same is true of “biased journalism.” Biased toward what, exactly?
That’s where outlets diverge. WaPo appears unable or unwilling to articulate what standards its audience is supposed to trust or why those standards should matter. FoxNews, for better or worse, has figured that out. It knows what worldview and expectations its audience values and produces accordingly.
As for what Americans value most, I’d argue it’s not ideology but standards: fairness, transparency, factual grounding, accountability, and a clear separation between reporting and opinion. Those values happen to align more closely with what conservatives have been insisting on in media, even if conservatives themselves don’t always live up to them. People don’t demand perfection. They demand honesty about what you’re doing and discipline in how you do it.
OLLY,
Well said.
NPR, MSM never has said what advocacy journalism was but by their reporting it is obvious a leftist/DNC agenda.
Concerning Fox, I have no idea as I do not watch Fox, dont go to their web site unless it is linked to a headline. I will have to take your word for it, if they have figured it out.
However, based off the ratings, they do seem to be giving Americans what they want. CNN, MS NOW, WaPo, NPR etc. not so much. Heck, CNN ratings are lower than The Food Network. If I had cable, I would watch The Food Network over CNN any day.
Upstate, market share is the most obvious metric.