GREY LADY DOWN
‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers
Jeremy Barr in Washington
Washington Post’s White House team urges Jeff Bezos to halt massive newsroom cuts
Brian Stelter, CNN
Thu, January 29, 2026
The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) reported strong financial results for 2025 on Wednesday, driven by growth in digital subscriptions, rising digital advertising revenue, and expanding profit margins, highlighting the company’s multi-revenue stream strategy.
Total revenue for the year increased approximately 9%, with digital revenues outpacing declines in print, the company said. Digital subscription revenue rose roughly 14%, supported by 1.4 million net new digital subscribers, bringing the total to 12.8 million.
Digital advertising revenue jumped 20% for the year, with fourth-quarter digital ad revenue up 25% to $147 million, exceeding guidance.
In the fourth quarter alone, the Times added 450,000 digital subscribers, with the average revenue per user for digital-only subscriptions rising to $9.72 as many subscribers moved from promotional pricing to higher tiers.
Looking ahead, the company expects first-quarter 2026 digital-only subscription revenue to grow 14% to 17%, and total subscription revenue to rise 9% to 11%. Digital advertising revenue is projected to increase in the high teens to low 20s percentage range, while total advertising revenue is expected to grow in the low double digits. Adjusted operating costs for Q1 are forecast to rise 8% to 9%, reflecting ongoing investment in video journalism and digital product offerings.
Shares of The New York Times were down 10.8% in Wednesday morning trading.
The report comes as a major shakeup hit a rival, The Washington Post, which announced cuts affecting roughly one-third of its staff. More than 300 employees were laid off, with the sports and books sections eliminated and several international bureaus scaled back. The restructuring aims to reduce losses under owner Jeff Bezos by focusing resources on national news, politics, business, and health amid declining subscriptions.
Jeremy Barr in Washington
THE GUARDIAN
Wed, February 4, 2026
Wed, February 4, 2026
The Washington Post headquarters in Washington DC last month, before Wednesday’s ‘strategic reset’.Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Reuters · Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
The Washington Post laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday, which its former executive editor said “ranks among the darkest days” in the newspaper’s history. Approximately one-third of employees were affected.
Staffers at the Post have been on edge for weeks about the rumored cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee, not authorized to speak publicly.
Related: ‘No one knows anything’: Washington Post staffers fear major cuts
During a morning meeting announcing the changes, the editor in chief, Matt Murray, told employees that the Post was undergoing a “strategic reset” to better position the publication for the future, according to several employees who were on the call.
Murray acknowledged that the Post had struggled to reach “customers” and talked about the need to compete in a crowded media marketplace. “Today, the Washington Post is taking a number of actions across the company to secure our future,” he said, according to an audio recording of the meeting.
Murray told employees that the Post was ending the current iteration of its popular sports desk, though some employees would remain on a new team. The Post is also restructuring its local coverage, reducing its international reporting operation, cutting its books desk and suspending its flagship daily news podcast Post Reports.
Murray said that while the Post’s international coverage team will be scaled back, approximately 12 bureaus will remain “with a focus on national security issues”.
“We all recognize the actions we are taking today will be painful – most of all, of course, for those of you who are directly affected, but for everybody,” Murray told staffers on the call. “I know that the reset is going to feel like a shock to the system and raise some questions for everybody.”
Martin Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said: “This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”
Seeking to lay out the business case for the layoffs, Murray said the move was “about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming a more crowded and competitive and complicated media landscape”.
“I know that these last couple of weeks have been an unusually tense and distracting time for all of us, and I know it will be a difficult day,” he added. “I appreciate the excellence of your work during this time.”
Murray said the Post’s largest team would be focused on covering politics and government, and the paper would also prioritize coverage of nationals news and features topics such as science, health, medicine, technology, climate and business.
Post employees who have been laid off will continue to be on staff through 10 April, though they will not be required to work. They will receive six months of continued health insurance coverage.
The affected employees include Caroline O’Donovan, who primarily covers Amazon, the company founded by the Post owner, Jeff Bezos. Other staffers, including the sports journalist Neil Greenberg, have also announced that they were affected.
One editor who was laid off on Wednesday laid much of the blame at the feet of the Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, who did not speak on the company’s morning conference call.
“Will Lewis’s legacy (already pretty bleak to begin with) will be having enabled Bezos to tank an American institution,” the staffer said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. “And he wasn’t even brave enough to face his staffers more than once in his tenure at the Post. Embarrassing to say the least.”
After years of growth under owner Bezos, the Post has been shedding staff over the last few years. About 240 staffers left via buyouts offered at the end of 2023, and another chunk of staffers took buyouts last year, which were offered to any employee with more than 10 years of experience.
Layoffs, particularly of journalists in the newsroom, have been less common. In fall 2024, the Post laid off 54 employees from the division responsible for its proprietary publishing software, and in January 2025, the Post laid off about 4% of staffers who worked in advertising, marketing and print operations.
Related: Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos stays silent as employees brace for cuts
Over the past week, Post employees had been urging Bezos to stop – or at least soften – the planned cuts, signing letters and sending personalized messages on social media that conveyed the importance of the journalism the Post produces.
But Bezos has remained silent, and did not respond to a series of letters sent by staffers representing the newspaper’s foreign, local and White House reporting teams.
On Monday, though, he was there in person to warmly greet Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, on a tour of another one of the companies he owns, his Blue Origin spaceflight startup in Florida.
Baron, the former executive editor, warned: “The Washington Post’s ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be further depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed more than ever.”
Baron called out Bezos for an ill-timed decision to pre-empt the Post’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris for president in fall 2024, as well as a decision to narrowly focus its opinion page to prioritize writing “in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets”, decisions that led to the resignation of a top editor and quickly cost the Post hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
“Bezos’s sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump have left an especially ugly stain of their own,” Baron said. “This is a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.”
The union representing most Post employees said the cuts made on Wednesday were not “inevitable”.
“A newsroom cannot be hollowed out without consequences for its credibility, its reach and its future,” the union said. “Continuing to eliminate workers only stands to weaken the newspaper, drive away readers and undercut The Post’s mission: to hold power to account without fear or favor and provide critical information for communities across the region, country and world.”
The union suggested that Bezos might not be the right owner for the Post. “If Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, then the Post deserves a steward who that will.”
The union has organized a protest of the cuts to be held in front of the Post’s Washington DC headquarters on Thursday.
The Washington Post laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday, which its former executive editor said “ranks among the darkest days” in the newspaper’s history. Approximately one-third of employees were affected.
Staffers at the Post have been on edge for weeks about the rumored cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee, not authorized to speak publicly.
Related: ‘No one knows anything’: Washington Post staffers fear major cuts
During a morning meeting announcing the changes, the editor in chief, Matt Murray, told employees that the Post was undergoing a “strategic reset” to better position the publication for the future, according to several employees who were on the call.
Murray acknowledged that the Post had struggled to reach “customers” and talked about the need to compete in a crowded media marketplace. “Today, the Washington Post is taking a number of actions across the company to secure our future,” he said, according to an audio recording of the meeting.
Murray told employees that the Post was ending the current iteration of its popular sports desk, though some employees would remain on a new team. The Post is also restructuring its local coverage, reducing its international reporting operation, cutting its books desk and suspending its flagship daily news podcast Post Reports.
Murray said that while the Post’s international coverage team will be scaled back, approximately 12 bureaus will remain “with a focus on national security issues”.
“We all recognize the actions we are taking today will be painful – most of all, of course, for those of you who are directly affected, but for everybody,” Murray told staffers on the call. “I know that the reset is going to feel like a shock to the system and raise some questions for everybody.”
Martin Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said: “This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”
Seeking to lay out the business case for the layoffs, Murray said the move was “about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming a more crowded and competitive and complicated media landscape”.
“I know that these last couple of weeks have been an unusually tense and distracting time for all of us, and I know it will be a difficult day,” he added. “I appreciate the excellence of your work during this time.”
Murray said the Post’s largest team would be focused on covering politics and government, and the paper would also prioritize coverage of nationals news and features topics such as science, health, medicine, technology, climate and business.
Post employees who have been laid off will continue to be on staff through 10 April, though they will not be required to work. They will receive six months of continued health insurance coverage.
The affected employees include Caroline O’Donovan, who primarily covers Amazon, the company founded by the Post owner, Jeff Bezos. Other staffers, including the sports journalist Neil Greenberg, have also announced that they were affected.
One editor who was laid off on Wednesday laid much of the blame at the feet of the Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, who did not speak on the company’s morning conference call.
“Will Lewis’s legacy (already pretty bleak to begin with) will be having enabled Bezos to tank an American institution,” the staffer said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. “And he wasn’t even brave enough to face his staffers more than once in his tenure at the Post. Embarrassing to say the least.”
After years of growth under owner Bezos, the Post has been shedding staff over the last few years. About 240 staffers left via buyouts offered at the end of 2023, and another chunk of staffers took buyouts last year, which were offered to any employee with more than 10 years of experience.
Layoffs, particularly of journalists in the newsroom, have been less common. In fall 2024, the Post laid off 54 employees from the division responsible for its proprietary publishing software, and in January 2025, the Post laid off about 4% of staffers who worked in advertising, marketing and print operations.
Related: Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos stays silent as employees brace for cuts
Over the past week, Post employees had been urging Bezos to stop – or at least soften – the planned cuts, signing letters and sending personalized messages on social media that conveyed the importance of the journalism the Post produces.
But Bezos has remained silent, and did not respond to a series of letters sent by staffers representing the newspaper’s foreign, local and White House reporting teams.
On Monday, though, he was there in person to warmly greet Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, on a tour of another one of the companies he owns, his Blue Origin spaceflight startup in Florida.
Baron, the former executive editor, warned: “The Washington Post’s ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be further depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed more than ever.”
Baron called out Bezos for an ill-timed decision to pre-empt the Post’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris for president in fall 2024, as well as a decision to narrowly focus its opinion page to prioritize writing “in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets”, decisions that led to the resignation of a top editor and quickly cost the Post hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
“Bezos’s sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump have left an especially ugly stain of their own,” Baron said. “This is a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.”
The union representing most Post employees said the cuts made on Wednesday were not “inevitable”.
“A newsroom cannot be hollowed out without consequences for its credibility, its reach and its future,” the union said. “Continuing to eliminate workers only stands to weaken the newspaper, drive away readers and undercut The Post’s mission: to hold power to account without fear or favor and provide critical information for communities across the region, country and world.”
The union suggested that Bezos might not be the right owner for the Post. “If Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, then the Post deserves a steward who that will.”
The union has organized a protest of the cuts to be held in front of the Post’s Washington DC headquarters on Thursday.
Washington Post’s White House team urges Jeff Bezos to halt massive newsroom cuts
Brian Stelter, CNN
Thu, January 29, 2026
The Washington Post’s White House team has written directly to the paper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, pictured, urging him to reconsider incoming cuts to the newsroom.
- Remo Casilli/Reuters
With widespread layoffs expected at The Washington Post in the coming weeks, teams of reporters are sending impassioned letters to owner Jeff Bezos, urging him not to shrink the newsroom.
In a letter obtained by CNN, the newspaper’s White House reporters banded together to defend some of the desks facing major cutbacks.
“If the plan, to the extent there is one, is to reorient around politics we wanted to emphasize how much we rely on collaboration with foreign, sports, local — the entire paper, really. And if other sections are diminished, we all are,” bureau chief Matt Viser wrote in one of the Post’s internal Slack channels on Thursday morning.
The accompanying letter, signed by Viser and all seven other White House reporters, makes the case for a “diversified Washington Post.” And it tries to speak Bezos’s language, appealing to him with data and a determination to grow the Post.
“In a typical month,” the letter said, “some of us have found that more than half of the new subscribers we brought to The Post came from stories and scoops that relied on desks such as International and Metro.”
Those stories included recent scoops about the US military action in Venezuela and President Donald Trump’s demolition of the East Wing.
“Our colleagues’ work helps lift up our own,” the reporters wrote.
A spokesperson for The Post declined comment to CNN about the looming layoffs.
The incoming cuts…
The unusual public pleas to Bezos have come after several private signals about imminent cuts, including an internal memo saying the Post no longer planned to send any reporters to the Winter Olympics in February.
Reporters fear that the Post is slashing its way to irrelevance; moreover, they wonder whether Bezos, who bought the publication more than a decade ago, cares about it anymore.
Thus, the staffers are going over the head of the Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, and trying to get Bezos’s attention directly.
International correspondents, anticipating reductions to their ranks, wrote to Bezos last weekend and said “robust, powerful foreign coverage is essential to the Washington Post’s brand and its future success in whatever form the paper takes moving forward.”
A second letter, from more than two dozen DC-area beat reporters, emphasized the importance of local coverage. “Should you allow Post management to lay off the local staff, which has been cut in half in the last five years, the effect on this region and the people in it will be immeasurable,” the reporters wrote.
The new letter from the White House reporters is a bit different because there is no indication that their jobs are at risk.
Instead, Lewis has spoken privately about focusing the Post’s investment on politics and a few other key areas, while cutting back in areas like sports and foreign affairs.
“But some of our most impactful, most-read articles… have relied on collaboration with all corners of the newsroom,” the White House reporters told Bezos.
After several tumultuous years and previous rounds of staff reductions, reporters who have stayed at the Post, even when offered buyout opportunities to leave, say the staff is at a breaking point.
“There’s now a strong sense that neither Jeff Bezos nor Will Lewis are serious, good-faith stewards of The Washington Post,” one veteran correspondent said.
The person pointed out that Bezos made changes to the Opinion section that cost the Post dearly. Bezos axed a planned editorial page endorsement of Kamala Harris in late 2024, leading to mass cancellations by concerned subscribers, and then announced a more Trump-aligned mission for the Opinion pages in early 2025, causing even more upheaval.
Bezos and Lewis “drove us into a ditch with their decisions, particularly the reinvention of the Opinion section, costing us hundreds of thousands of subscribers,” the correspondent said. “Now it looks like the staff will pay for it.”
With widespread layoffs expected at The Washington Post in the coming weeks, teams of reporters are sending impassioned letters to owner Jeff Bezos, urging him not to shrink the newsroom.
In a letter obtained by CNN, the newspaper’s White House reporters banded together to defend some of the desks facing major cutbacks.
“If the plan, to the extent there is one, is to reorient around politics we wanted to emphasize how much we rely on collaboration with foreign, sports, local — the entire paper, really. And if other sections are diminished, we all are,” bureau chief Matt Viser wrote in one of the Post’s internal Slack channels on Thursday morning.
The accompanying letter, signed by Viser and all seven other White House reporters, makes the case for a “diversified Washington Post.” And it tries to speak Bezos’s language, appealing to him with data and a determination to grow the Post.
“In a typical month,” the letter said, “some of us have found that more than half of the new subscribers we brought to The Post came from stories and scoops that relied on desks such as International and Metro.”
Those stories included recent scoops about the US military action in Venezuela and President Donald Trump’s demolition of the East Wing.
“Our colleagues’ work helps lift up our own,” the reporters wrote.
A spokesperson for The Post declined comment to CNN about the looming layoffs.
The incoming cuts…
The unusual public pleas to Bezos have come after several private signals about imminent cuts, including an internal memo saying the Post no longer planned to send any reporters to the Winter Olympics in February.
Reporters fear that the Post is slashing its way to irrelevance; moreover, they wonder whether Bezos, who bought the publication more than a decade ago, cares about it anymore.
Thus, the staffers are going over the head of the Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, and trying to get Bezos’s attention directly.
International correspondents, anticipating reductions to their ranks, wrote to Bezos last weekend and said “robust, powerful foreign coverage is essential to the Washington Post’s brand and its future success in whatever form the paper takes moving forward.”
A second letter, from more than two dozen DC-area beat reporters, emphasized the importance of local coverage. “Should you allow Post management to lay off the local staff, which has been cut in half in the last five years, the effect on this region and the people in it will be immeasurable,” the reporters wrote.
The new letter from the White House reporters is a bit different because there is no indication that their jobs are at risk.
Instead, Lewis has spoken privately about focusing the Post’s investment on politics and a few other key areas, while cutting back in areas like sports and foreign affairs.
“But some of our most impactful, most-read articles… have relied on collaboration with all corners of the newsroom,” the White House reporters told Bezos.
After several tumultuous years and previous rounds of staff reductions, reporters who have stayed at the Post, even when offered buyout opportunities to leave, say the staff is at a breaking point.
“There’s now a strong sense that neither Jeff Bezos nor Will Lewis are serious, good-faith stewards of The Washington Post,” one veteran correspondent said.
The person pointed out that Bezos made changes to the Opinion section that cost the Post dearly. Bezos axed a planned editorial page endorsement of Kamala Harris in late 2024, leading to mass cancellations by concerned subscribers, and then announced a more Trump-aligned mission for the Opinion pages in early 2025, causing even more upheaval.
Bezos and Lewis “drove us into a ditch with their decisions, particularly the reinvention of the Opinion section, costing us hundreds of thousands of subscribers,” the correspondent said. “Now it looks like the staff will pay for it.”
ADDING INSULT TO INJURY
New York Times reports strong 2025 growth as Washington Post cuts staff
Wed, February 4, 2026
Wed, February 4, 2026
New York Times reports strong 2025 growth as Washington Post cuts staff
The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) reported strong financial results for 2025 on Wednesday, driven by growth in digital subscriptions, rising digital advertising revenue, and expanding profit margins, highlighting the company’s multi-revenue stream strategy.
Total revenue for the year increased approximately 9%, with digital revenues outpacing declines in print, the company said. Digital subscription revenue rose roughly 14%, supported by 1.4 million net new digital subscribers, bringing the total to 12.8 million.
Digital advertising revenue jumped 20% for the year, with fourth-quarter digital ad revenue up 25% to $147 million, exceeding guidance.
In the fourth quarter alone, the Times added 450,000 digital subscribers, with the average revenue per user for digital-only subscriptions rising to $9.72 as many subscribers moved from promotional pricing to higher tiers.
Looking ahead, the company expects first-quarter 2026 digital-only subscription revenue to grow 14% to 17%, and total subscription revenue to rise 9% to 11%. Digital advertising revenue is projected to increase in the high teens to low 20s percentage range, while total advertising revenue is expected to grow in the low double digits. Adjusted operating costs for Q1 are forecast to rise 8% to 9%, reflecting ongoing investment in video journalism and digital product offerings.
Shares of The New York Times were down 10.8% in Wednesday morning trading.
The report comes as a major shakeup hit a rival, The Washington Post, which announced cuts affecting roughly one-third of its staff. More than 300 employees were laid off, with the sports and books sections eliminated and several international bureaus scaled back. The restructuring aims to reduce losses under owner Jeff Bezos by focusing resources on national news, politics, business, and health amid declining subscriptions.
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