{"id":6853,"date":"2026-02-06T12:45:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/?p=6853"},"modified":"2026-02-06T12:46:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T12:46:32","slug":"washington-post-cuts-one-third-of-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/inter\/2026\/02\/06\/washington-post-cuts-one-third-of-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Post cuts one-third of staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post has cut a third of its staff, citing a \u201cbroad strategic reset.\u201d These cuts come after The Post\u2019s billionaire owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ordered job cuts and the scaling back of news coverage for the leading US newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n

Affecting journalists and employees across departments, roles in the newsroom\u2019s sports, local and foreign sections have taken the worst hits, with the move coming at the end of\u00a018 tumultuous months of layoffs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When announcing the sweeping changes, executive editor Matt Murray told employees that the Post was undergoing a \u201cstrategic reset\u201d to better position the publication in a \u201crapidly changing era of new technologies and evolving user habits,\u201d according to several employees who were on the call.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The announcement on Wednesday was met with wide-spread criticism from the paper\u2019s employees and former editors. Marty Baron, the paper\u2019s executive editor until 2021, described it as the \u201camong the darkest days in the history of the world\u2019s greatest news organisations,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Washington Post\u2019s ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be further depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed more than ever.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Angered, many laid off journalists took to social media. \u201cI was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone,\u201d Foreign correspondent Lizzie Johnson, who is based in Ukraine, said on social media. \u201cI have no words. I\u2019m devastated.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sports columnist Barry Svrluga said that the sports department will be closing in its \u201ccurrent form,\u201d citing comments by Murray during the call, and another reporter said most of the metro section, which covers news in the Washington DC area, had also been laid off.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Staff at The Post had been on edge for weeks as rumors of cuts circulated the newsroom. Ahead of the cuts, foreign correspondents, local reporters and the White House team had pleaded with Bezos to preserve their jobs. \u201cDon\u2019t eliminate our jobs,\u201d reporters from the Post\u2019s local desk begged in their memo. \u201cKeep the Washington Post a place that covers Washington.\u201d Bezos, however, remained silent, and did not respond to the series of letters sent by staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington-Baltimore News Guild (WBNG), the union representing most Post employees, said the cuts made on Wednesday were not \u201cinevitable.\u201d Advising that Bezos may not be a suitable owner for the Post, they commented:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ & IFJ) have also joined the Guild in condemning the cuts. The union organised a protest of the cuts which was held in front of the Post\u2019s Washington DC building on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post has cut a third of its staff, citing a \u201cbroad strategic reset.\u201d These cuts come after The Post\u2019s billionaire owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ordered job cuts and the scaling back of news coverage for the leading US newspaper. Affecting journalists and employees across departments, roles in the newsroom\u2019s sports, local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":6854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1179,1673,1672,1427,1671,576,1063],"wf_post_folders":[247],"class_list":{"0":"post-6853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-inter","8":"tag-international","9":"tag-jeff-bezos","10":"tag-job-cuts","11":"tag-journalism","12":"tag-the-washington-post","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-washington"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Emily Reid","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/emily-reid\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Washington_Post_building-300x225.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["International<\/a>"],"unlinked":["International<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["international<\/a>","Jeff Bezos<\/a>","job cuts<\/a>","journalism<\/a>","the Washington post<\/a>","United States<\/a>","Washington<\/a>"],"unlinked":["international<\/span>","Jeff Bezos<\/span>","job cuts<\/span>","journalism<\/span>","the Washington post<\/span>","United States<\/span>","Washington<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 months ago","modified":"Updated 6 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 6 February 2026","modified":"Updated on 6 February 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 6 February 2026 12:45","modified":"Updated on 6 February 2026 12:46"},"featured_img_caption":"Washington Post building. Photograph: Daniel X. O\u2019Neil","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6853"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6856,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6853\/revisions\/6856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6853"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=6853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}