The Washington Post announced on Wednesday a major downsizing of its newsroom as part of a "strategic reset" to address ongoing financial losses, resulting in significant staff reductions and major changes to its coverage areas.
Executive Editor Matt Murray informed staff during a morning meeting (via Zoom, after instructing employees to stay home) that the moves would include a "broad strategic reset with a significant staff reduction." While exact layoff numbers were not immediately detailed in the announcement, reports indicate the cuts could affect hundreds of journalists potentially shrinking the newsroom (currently around 800 people) by a substantial portion.
Key changes include:
- Ending the sports section in its current form, effectively closing or severely dismantling the dedicated sports desk. Coverage will likely be reduced or shifted elsewhere, following earlier decisions to scale back events like in-person reporting for the Super Bowl, Nationals spring training, and initially the 2026 Winter Olympics (though a small team was later sent).
- Scaling back international (foreign) coverage, with the foreign desk expected to take heavy hits, including reduced staffing and limitations on high-risk reporting.
- Restructuring the metro desk, which handles local Washington, D.C.-area news, leading to reduced local journalism capacity.
- Eliminating the books section, ending dedicated books coverage and reviews.
These adjustments prioritize core strengths such as politics, national security, and video journalism, while pulling back from areas seen as having lower reader demand or financial return amid years of hundreds of millions in losses under owner Jeff Bezos and CEO Will Lewis.
Staff reactions have included prior pleas to Bezos (via letters from international, metro, and other teams) to preserve key beats, as well as widespread anxiety and social media campaigns like #SaveThePost.
The announcement follows months of rumors, including earlier signals like canceling (then partially reinstating) Olympics coverage.