Washington Post Bleeding Subscribers, Considering Layoffs: Report
The Washington Post is considering laying off around 10 percent of its newsroom in response to declining profits, according to a new report from the New York Times.
Fred Ryan, the Post‘s CEO, is said to have suggested cutting 100 positions after ad revenue in the first half of this year fell 15 percent as compared to last year, several people with knowledge fo the discussions told the Times. The cuts could be made through hiring freezes or layoffs, or a combination of the two.
A spokesman for the Post denied that the paper was going to be shrinking in size and suggested to the Times that its newsroom would instead be growing.
While many news outlets have struggled since Donald Trump left office, the Times and the Wall Street Journal — the Post‘s two primary competitors — have added to their subscriber base during that time, the paper reported.
Ryan has reportedly been frustrated by a lack of in-person office attendance at the Post‘s Washington, D.C. office and the performance of certain writers. The paper now boasts fewer than three million subscribers.
In addition to declining traffic, the Post has also been plagued by internal discord.
Earlier this year, reporter Dave Weigel was suspended after he retweeted a joke that read “Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it’s polar or sexual.”
Despite Weigel’s punishment, some of his colleagues, most notably national political reporter Felicia Somnez, were unsatisfied with the paper’s response. In the aftermath of Weigel’s suspension, Sonmez publicly and repeatedly criticized the Post for being overly tolerant of sexist behavior. She was fired in June after ignoring repeated warnings to stop blasting her colleagues and employer on social media.
It was separately reported on Tuesday that Weigel would be leaving the Post for Semafor, a new global news start-up.
The Post has also been scrutinized for its hiring and management of former New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz as a columnist, which has been interpreted by some media critics as a sign of declining editorial standards at the paper.
In June, Lorenz claimed in an article that she had reached out to two YouTube personalities she had criticized in an article about the coverage of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial despite having never done so. The article was eventually corrected, but Lorenz was not disciplined.
In April, Lorenz was criticized for doxxing the owner of the “Libs of TikTok” Twitter account.
A Post spokesman told the Times that the paper “expect[s] to see returns, both in consumer and advertising revenue” soon on investments it has made in diversifying its coverage, international news, and attracting younger readers.
