The Washington Post began its promised layoffs on Tuesday, sources confirmed to The Daily Beast, fulfilling its promise to cut costs just days after its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos visited the newsroom.
The layoffs will ultimately affect 20 people at the paper, executive editor Sally Buzbee wrote in a staff-wide email obtained and reviewed by The Daily Beast, and 30 vacancies will not be filled.
“While such changes are not easy, evolution is necessary for us to stay competitive, and the economic climate has guided our decision to act now,” Buzbee wrote. “We believe these steps will ultimately help us to fulfill our mission to scrutinize power and empower readers. We are not planning further job eliminations at this time.”
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The paper would also end the video game and e-sports vertical Launcher and the child-focused vertical KidsPost, four sources familiar with the plans told The Daily Beast. A Post journalist said the sections were often a space for younger writers to contribute as both sections were more receptive to their pitches. “It’s really disheartening that we’re losing that space,” they said.
Buzbee said the paper prioritized the elimination of open positions to minimize further layoffs. A Post spokesperson did not immediately elaborate on what open positions would not be filled.
“The layoffs seem completely unnecessary,” another Post journalist told The Daily Beast. “Also unnecessary: Scaring staff for an entire month by suggesting there would be even more people laid off. I don’t think today’s news inspires any additional confidence in management and how they have handled this.”
Gene Park, a Post journalist focused on video games, said the Launcher team found out Tuesday morning when the section’s editors asked the team to join a meeting. Up until that point, the team felt management supported the vertical, even hiring an editor late last year.
“It was up until today that we thought the Post would have our back,” Park told The Daily Beast. “Everything seemed to indicate that we would be OK.”
Video game coverage will move to the Style section, he said, where he will be the only reporter focused on the topic.
“I have no choice but to try and trust them on this,” Park said. “I'm glad they’re making decisions to try and consider our future. I hope they figure it out.”
In a Tuesday meeting among the paper’s national desk, editor Matea Gold indicated that part of the reason sections like Launcher were cut was because management did not see its traffic translate into broader Post engagement, such as subscriptions and cross-section reading, according to three people familiar with her remarks.
The newspaper’s union blasted the cuts in an email to staffers Tuesday morning, saying it had “good reason” to believe the layoffs were significantly less than what publisher Fred Ryan dramatically announced at a town hall last month.
“To be clear, we believe any job eliminations right now—at a time of continued growth and expansion—are unacceptable,” guild leadership said in the email.
The guild elaborated on that sentiment in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Since the town hall, we have received no clear explanation for why the layoffs are happening despite numerous attempts to get answers,” guild reps wrote. “As far as we can tell, these layoffs are not financially necessary or rooted in any coherent business plan from Fred Ryan, who said at the same town hall that he expects the company to be larger a year from now.”
The news about layoffs was not initially broadcast to staffers by Post leadership at first. Instead, an email welcoming three new hires across three different desks was sent out just before 11 a.m.
Tuesday’s layoffs came after months of internal hand-wringing over when the Post would actually follow through on the cuts—and who would be affected.
The paper did not disclose which departments would be affected following Ryan’s announcement and has otherwise remained mum on details, telling The Daily Beast last week it would stick to its planned layoffs in the first quarter of 2023. Bezos’ visit last week also brought a lack of clarity, as the billionaire remained mostly quiet throughout his two-day visit.
It also came after a dramatic year within the D.C. paper, which has seen everything from staff disputes that became public to financial uncertainty to notable staff departures to prominent competitors.
The paper also shuttered its Sunday magazine late last year and laid off all but 10 of its staffers, none of whom could apply for other roles, along with its Pulitzer-winning dance critic.
Even still, the Post has maintained it was in a period of growth and promised last month that the layoffs would not result in an overall reduction in headcount.
