Washington Post cuts roughly one-third of staff in sweeping restructuring

The Washington Post began implementing sweeping layoffs on Wednesday, cutting roughly one-third of its employees in a restructuring that company leaders said is intended to place the paper on a stronger financial footing. Executive Editor Matt Murray informed staff during a recorded company-wide Zoom call that the changes would “drastically shrink the size of the storied newspaper,” and that the organization must adapt to a new commercial reality.

Murray told staff, “For too long, we've operated with a structure that's too rooted in the days when we were a quasi-monopoly local newspaper,” and warned “we need a new way forward and a sounder foundation.” The paper issued a statement to employees saying, “The Washington Post is taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future, in what amounts to a significant restructuring across the company. These steps are designed to strengthen our footing and sharpen our focus on delivering the distinctive journalism that sets The Post apart and, most importantly, engages our customers.”

The cuts reach across news and non-news departments. Leaders said the sports desk will be eliminated or remade, the books department will be closed, the Post Reports podcast will be suspended, and the number of overseas correspondents and editors will be reduced, including impact on the Middle East bureau. The Washington-area metro desk and editing staffs will be restructured. Staff members reported that internal notices would arrive by email with subject lines indicating whether a role had been eliminated.

Union leaders described the scale with alarm. The Washington-Baltimore News Guild said the newsroom was losing “hundreds” of staffers. An anonymous Post reporter called the layoffs a “bloodbath.” Prominent staffers signaled immediate shock and loss: Caroline O’Donovan, the paper’s Amazon beat reporter, and Claire Parker, Cairo bureau chief, posted on social media that they were affected. One correspondent identified only as Johnson wrote that he was “just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone.” Sports columnist Barry Svrluga said the sports department will close in its “current form.”

The moves follow recent cost cuts, including a decision days earlier to scale back coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, which leadership said was driven by mounting financial losses. The Post has been owned by Jeff Bezos since 2013; critics have questioned whether owner investment has matched the paper’s ambitions. The layoffs come amid other strains on U.S. journalism, including federal actions that raised press freedom concerns after FBI agents searched a reporter’s home on January 14 in a national security probe.

The immediate market implications are twofold: first, a thinner newsroom will reduce the Post’s capacity to cover breaking international crises, congressional oversight and detailed local governance, potentially lowering reader engagement and subscription value. Second, the cuts underscore unresolved economics in news: advertising dollars have consolidated with major tech platforms, and subscription growth has not offset declines, forcing owners to choose between deeper investment or further consolidation.

Policy and industry observers say the shakeup will intensify debates over public support, nonprofit models and regulatory responses to platform dominance. For readers and Washington institutions, the loss of reporters stationed overseas and a pared-down local desk represents a contraction in the civic infrastructure that sustained long-form investigative and accountability reporting.

Executives characterized the changes as necessary; staff and press advocates called them a setback for journalism. The exact number of positions eliminated has not been disclosed publicly, and company leaders have yet to outline a detailed plan for restoring capacity or shifting resources to digital growth.