The Washington Post lays off a third of its staff

The Washington Post laid off employees across “nearly all news departments” Wednesday as part of a major newsroom restructuring.

Executive editor Matt Murray broke the news to staff in a morning Zoom call. The cuts include the elimination of the sports and books desks in their current form, the restructuring (and reduction) of the metro desk and the closure of several foreign bureaus. “Post Reports,” the paper’s flagship daily podcast, will also stop production.

Roughly a third of Post employees were laid off, including more than 300 of the 800-person newsroom, CNN and The New York Times reported. The layoffs mark the most extensive cuts at the Post in years and follow a period of sustained financial losses, leadership turnover and controversial editorial decisions.

In an email to staff, Murray said that the changes are necessary after years of financial challenges. The current media environment has evolved greatly, he wrote. Search, which once helped the paper “thrive,” was in decline due to the growth of artificial intelligence. Organic search fell by nearly half in the last three years, Murray wrote.

“We have concluded that the company’s structure is too rooted in a different era, when we were a dominant, local print product,” he wrote. “This restructure will help to secure our future in service of our journalistic mission and provide us stability moving forward.”

Murray added that some areas of the Post, including video, have not kept up with the changes in how people consume news.

“Significantly, our daily story output has substantially fallen in the last five years. And even as we produce much excellent work, we too often write from one perspective, for one slice of the audience,” Murray wrote.

The Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which includes the union representing Post journalists, wrote in a statement that it “strongly condemns” the layoffs, which the guild said come at a time when scrutiny of those in power is “more necessary than ever.”

“Management has framed these decisions as unavoidable, but they are the result of choices. Choosing to cut staff instead of recommitting to the people who produce The Post’s journalism is a failure of leadership and vision,” the guild wrote. “A newspaper cannot claim to stand for accountability while repeatedly sacrificing the workers who uphold that principle.”

Among those laid off Wednesday were those covering race and ethnicity; national health; protest movements, activism and extremism; Maryland education; climate; opioids and addiction; national politics; and Amazon. Foreign correspondents covering the Middle East, including Jerusalem, Cairo, Turkey and Iran; Ukraine; China; South Asia; Oceania; Central Europe; and international investigations were also let go.

In the immediate future, Murray wrote, the Post will focus on areas that resonate with readers and “demonstrate authority, distinctiveness and impact.” They include politics, national affairs, national security, science, health, medicine, technology, climate and business. The outlet will also produce “journalism that empowers people to take action,” investigations and pieces that focus on topics “capturing attention in culture, online, and in daily life.”

The Post has struggled in recent years to find a sustainable path. In 2022, the paper lost $100 million, and the following year, it lost $77 million. Since then, it has undergone multiple rounds of layoffs and buyouts — all while struggling with controversial editorial decisions made by its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos.

The Wednesday layoffs did not come as a surprise to employees. Rumors about impending cuts have swirled since the Post informed sports reporters last month that it would not send anyone to the Winter Olympics in Italy. (The Post later backtracked and decided to send a small contingent to the Games. One of those reporters was laid off but told the Times he would continue covering the Olympics anyways.)

Within days, Post insiders were telling media reporters that the sports, international and metro teams were likely facing deep cuts. Journalists at the Post responded by beseeching Bezos both on X and in private to save their jobs. Foreign correspondents, for example, made social media posts about their work in the field and later sent a “collective plea” to Bezos. Later, the Post’s White House reporters — who were generally thought not to be at risk of layoffs — sent a letter to Bezos explaining the depth of their collaboration with the desks facing cuts.

In executing the cuts, the Post is taking an ax to its storied sports desk, which has served as a home for famous sportswriters like Shirley Povich, Michael Wilbon, Sally Jenkins, John Feinstein and Kevin Blackistone. Murray told staff that some reporters on the desk will be retained on a new team and that the paper would continue covering sports via features.

The cuts also mark a step back for the Post’s international desk, which was an area of priority during the pandemic, when the paper opened several new foreign bureaus. Staff on the international desk were finalists for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for their coverage of Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

In his note to staff, Murray highlighted several “long overdue steps” the Post had taken toward reinvention: creating the Print desk, transforming digital workflows and embedding audience strategy editors in every department.

The Post has leaned into projects powered by AI in recent months. In December, it launched its “Your Personal Podcast” initiative, which uses AI to generate a podcast episode based on a user’s preferred topics. Semafor later reported that the tool produced episodes with mispronunciations, fake quotes and added commentary. Its “Post Reports” podcast — which was eliminated Wednesday — was produced by a team of human journalists.

The cuts come amid ongoing turmoil at the paper. The Post, which gained a robust following in the late 2010s due to its political coverage, failed to maintain subscriber growth it saw during President Donald Trump’s first term. Nevertheless, it continued to grow its staff, and the paper employed more than 1,000 journalists by 2022.

All that ground to a halt at the end of 2022. The paper executed several layoffs, which continued into the next year. In an effort to regain its footing, the Post turned to new leadership. Will Lewis joined the paper as CEO and publisher — a choice that led to some controversy over his association with a phone-hacking scandal in the U.K. — in 2024, and Murray joined several months later.

In the days leading up to the 2024 presidential election, Bezos stopped the Post from publishing a planned endorsement for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in a move that many saw as an attempt to curry favor with Trump. The action drew widespread criticism, and more than 250,000 readers canceled their subscriptions.

Bezos, who had once received praise for “rescuing” a struggling Post in 2013, continued to make changes to the publication, driving off readers and staff. He announced in early 2025 that the Post opinion section would not publish anything opposing “personal liberties and free markets.” In the following months, many high-profile journalists either quit or took buyouts, including Jenkins, David Shipley, Ann Telnaes and Dave Jorgenson.

The Washington Post Guild wrote in a statement Wednesday that the outlet’s workforce had shrunk by 400 people in the past three years.

“If Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serves the millions who depend on Post journalism, then The Post deserves a steward that will.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.