Washington Post subscribers flooded the newspaper’s own site with comments expressing outrage over the sweeping layoffs at the publication.
Furious readers pointed out that the newspaper has not reported on its layoffs, which impacted around 800 journalists Wednesday. News outlets typically report on their own layoffs when they occur.
“The Washington Post is laying off one third of its staff today, according to everyone but the Washington Post,” one commenter said.
“Incredible that this paper fired 40% of its reporters today, yet has no story on that fact,” another added said about the layoffs, which actually impacted closer to 30 percent of the newsroom.
“Clearly the New Post’s motto is going to be: ‘You don’t really need to know that,’” they continued, in a swipe at the newspaper’s famous motto “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
The newspaper’s multi-billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, completely gutted several sections of the Post on Wednesday, including its sports desk and book review section, and made massive cuts to its local news and foreign reporting.
Comments on an article titled “Border czar Tom Homan says 700 ICE and CBP officers are leaving Minneapolis” pointed out the irony of the figure, given that the Post has laid off around 800 journalists in its newsroom.
“700 people sounds like a lot of people. but it’s 20 to 30% of the force right? isn’t that similar to the percentage of layoffs happening at The Washington Post right now?” the commenter said. “Democracy really is dying in darkness, probably just like a Melania film streaming sponsored by Amazon.”
“The whole situation is a little like when somebody shoves a thorny Rose into your assets, and you’re supposed to be grateful when they pull a third of it out. Shameful an and [sic] disgusting all around,” the user continued.
In the last few years, the Post, overseen by Will Lewis, has said it has lost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The decline wasn’t helped by the thousands of Post subscribers who left in droves in late 2024 after the newspaper refused to endorse a presidential candidate as Bezos attempted to make the newspaper more Trump-friendly.
In the wake of the cuts made on Wednesday, Washington Post subscribers were particularly irate with a column Marc Thiessen, a conservative commentator and Fox News contributor, authored. The piece argued that President Trump’s actions, or inactions, regarding protests in Iran will define his presidency.
“WaPo gets rid of almost the entire sports desk, but keeps this sycophant on board? An incredible fall from what was once a premier media organization,” one commenter wrote.
“The Post is cutting 30% of its workforce and leaving this Trump apologist on their payroll. Yet another reason I cancelled my autorenewal on my Post subscription,” another commenter wrote.
Another user quipped, “If WaPo finds it necessary to cut journalists in order to save money, why keep Thiessen on the payroll. An AI algorithm could produce his nonsensical articles for almost no cost.”
“WAPO lays off 30% but keeps running Theissen,” one commenter said. “Talk about clueless.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the Washington Post for comment.
