Bezos Guts The Washington Post

From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams. This is The Daily. When Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post more than a decade ago, journalists inside and outside of the newsroom were cautiously optimistic. Maybe he could revitalize one of America's most storied news organizations. Brutal blow to one of journalism's most legendary brands. The Washington Post is laying off one third of its staff across all departments. Those hopes though were dashed on Wednesday when the paper laid off more than a third of its newsroom, affecting nearly every section of the paper. The newspaper's books department will close. Its post reports podcast suspended. Its entire sports department and most of its overseas journalists. Today, I talked to my colleague, Eric Wempel, about what went wrong and what comes next. It's Thursday, February 5. Eric Wimble, welcome to The Daily. Thank you. Thanks for having me. A lot of people listening to our show today probably have some kind of awareness that people have been talking in really apocalyptic terms about the state of affairs at the Washington Post, and, specifically, the layoffs that happened on Wednesday, which were described by many people as, frankly, a bloodbath. And you, Eric, you are not only a media reporter at the New York York Times, but you also were a media columnist at The Washington Post. And this is why we wanted to talk to you today because of this unique vantage point that you have. So just to start, tell us what we know about these cuts. So this is an extremely grim outcome at The Washington Post, a dark day as many people have been saying. We knew the layoffs were coming, but they hit, and they hit with a tremendous amount of force. And that analysis doesn't need to extend that much further than just saying that 300 people who practice journalism for the benefit of American civic life have lost their jobs, maybe lost their careers, and their livelihood at least for some time. So it doesn't really have to go beyond that analysis. But there is another dimension to it, which is that this is the Washington Post, and the Washington Post right now is playing an enormous important role in covering an administration for whom no headcount is really sufficient. So that's what I would say about the enormity of these events. What do we know at this point at about 03:50 in the afternoon on Wednesday about who was laid off? Well, we know that the cuts took about 300 positions out of the newsroom, and this was a newsroom that was at about 800 in terms of its headcount. It had crested up above 1,100 several years ago, I think, and maybe in 2021, around then. And since then, it has been an exercise in retrenchment. Mhmm. The layoffs landed disproportionately on the metro desk, the sports desk, and the international coverage. Those are three areas that had been rumored to be hit …