‘The WaPo Extinction Event’: Washington Post Employees Beg For Their Jobs as Owner Jeff Bezos Prepares to Fire 300 More Staff

by Ben Kew

The Washington Post has had a tough few years, and it appears things are only going to get tougher.

According to a report from Puck News entitled ‘The WaPo Extinction Event,’ some 300 more employees of the struggling newspaper are likely to be axed as part of restructuring efforts led by CEO Will Lewis and the company’s owner, Jeff Bezos.

Their article explains:

The Post cuts—which could affect as many as 300 employees, according to sources—are the culmination of a two-year effort by Lewis to fundamentally transform the paper and reverse hundreds of millions in annual losses. In that effort, Lewis has decided to focus the Post’s editorial investment on a few core coverage areas—national security, politics, etcetera—while all but abandoning full-time coverage of topics where the paper doesn’t see adequate demand.

Unfortunately, that includes sports. Insiders expect the layoff process to begin as soon as this week. The Post has also been pulling back on much of its local news coverage, steering its reporters toward stories with more of a national scale.

Last year, it did away with stand-alone Sports and Metro takeouts, folding them into one section in its print editions. The paper also deemphasized local sports coverage, as evidenced by its decision to stop sending reporters to cover away games.

And while it’s harder than ever to make an impact on the sports beat in every form of media, it’s especially so in print: The Post may be owned by one of the richest men in the world, but he can’t reverse this economic reality for an entity that’s already bleeding cash.