The Washington Post’s international desks and reporters who covered Silicon Valley — including the one assigned to Jeff Bezos’ sprawling e-commerce empire — were among the hardest hit when the capital’s most storied newspaper announced sweeping layoffs on Wednesday.The bloodbath left the Post’s newsroom questioning the paper’s future, with one anonymous laid-off reporter telling HuffPost: “Are we a global news organization or do we just want to be Politico now?”Matt Murray, the Post’s executive editor, said in an all-staff Zoom call that the publication would undergo “a broad strategic reset” leading to “a significant staff reduction.” In practice, this means big hits to local coverage, closing the sports section “in its current form,” eliminating the books section, shrinking the international team, restructuring the metro section, flattening the photography team and suspending its “Post Reports” podcast ― effectively gutting a legendary newsroom famed for breaking the Watergate scandal as it looks to respond to shifts in news consumption.Among those put out of work is the Amazon reporter tasked with holding Bezos’ retail giant to account: Caroline O’Donovan, who announced her departure on X.The Washington Post Guild called for Jeff Bezos to be replaced if he's not willing to invest in the paper.Associated Press/Getty ImagesThe cuts reportedly represent a one-third of the staff being laid off, though it was not immediately clear how many total employees the newspaper had. Early reports suggested 300 jobs would go.Bezos, a billionaire who is the world’s fourth-richest man, has slashed the newsroom’s size and dramatically shifted its focus since buying it in 2013. The Washington Post Guild said the workforce has already shrunk by about 400 people in just the past three years.Wednesday’s move comes as Bezos has been observed cozying up to President Donald Trump — a notorious detractor of the free press — in his second administration. Bezos was on hand during Trump’s inauguration last January and recently dumped some $75 million into a flattering documentary on the first lady, Melania Trump.“I’ve gotten to know him,” Trump said of Bezos last year. “I think he’s trying to do a real job. Jeff Bezos is trying to do a real job with The Washington Post, and that wasn’t happening before.”The devastation inspired a chorus of immediate condemnation. “I just don’t know how The Washington Post is going to be The Washington Post after this. It feels like the end of it.”- A recently laid-off national reporter for The Washington Post.Marty Baron, a legendary former Post editor, called it one of the “darkest days” in the newspaper’s history.Baron was not shy about blaming Bezos for the paper’s woes, singling out a particularly “ill-conceived” decision by the billionaire to end the paper’s tradition of endorsing presidential nominees at the 2024 presidential election, which he called a “gutless order” that cost hundreds of thousands of subscribers. The Post is believed to have about 2 million total subscribers.Opting to narrow the focus of the Post’s opinion pages to “personal liberties and free markets” also prompted cancellations last year.“Bezos’s sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump have left an especially ugly stain of their own. This is a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction,” Baron wrote on Facebook. He was the newspaper’s editor from 2012 until his retirement five years ago. The cuts also appeared to be far more extensive than presented to staff.One reporter who lost their job, speaking to HuffPost anonymously, said that many were shocked at the carnage they saw unfold throughout the day. They said the majority of The Post’s tech reporters were going, and there was a suggestion that the entire San Francisco bureau was closing.“Clearly, the Post is retrenching hugely on its commitment to Silicon Valley reporting and tech accountability, which is disturbing,” they said.Tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler also said he had been cut. He posted a picture of the day the bureau was created back in 2019. I took this photo back in 2019, on the day I helped open the Post’s first real San Francisco bureau.Most of that office was cut today. (No idea if they're gonna keep the bureau.) pic.twitter.com/VaGMwyNLin— Geoffrey A. Fowler (@geoffreyfowler) February 4, 2026A national reporter who was laid off told HuffPost that at least 13 journalists who worked on the climate desk were let go.“It doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a remaining coverage area,” the reporter, who asked to remain anonymous, said of the climate beat.The bureau chief in Ukraine, the Asia editor, the New Delhi bureau chief, and a correspondent covering Turkey and Iran all confirmed they had been laid off, among others. Claire Parker, the Cairo bureau chief, said that her position had been eliminated alongside every other reporter and editor in the Middle East. A reporter who spoke to HuffPost said it was “bananas” to scale back on foreign reporting to such a huge extent.“I was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone,” wrote Ukraine correspondent Lizzie Johnson. “I have no words. I’m devastated.”Sydney bureau chief Michael Miller also said he was losing his job. “Worse, millions of readers will lose my colleagues’ brilliant coverage. At a time of tumult, we need more info, not less,” he wrote.An international reporter who lost their job and spoke to HuffPost anonymously criticized the paper for abandoning on-the-ground coverage in Ukraine and the Middle East as war raged in both regions.“It’s pretty shocking for us all on international that suddenly we don’t have a team in the Middle East, and we don’t have anyone in Asia,” the person said. “We’ve now got one person apparently reporting in London ... are we a global news organization or do we just want to be Politico now?”The individual said that while executives “have failed to come up with a plan on how to monetize us successfully,” it is the reporters who have “uprooted their lives to report for this newspaper that are getting the chop.”“Even the ones that remain don’t even classify themselves as lucky,” they said, explaining how rank-and-file have utterly lost trust in management, who have yet to provide clear answers about the paper’s future.In fact, the individual told HuffPost, there has been “no communication” on the cuts from Bezos, or CEO and Publisher Will Lewis, a controversial hire Bezos made back in 2023.“Crickets,” the person said.One of the laid-off reporters told HuffPost this “feels like the end” of the publication.“I just don’t know how The Washington Post is going to be The Washington Post after this,” the person said. “It feels like the end of it. I mourn for our readers, too, just as much as I do for us reporters.” Many other Post reporters took to social media to vent their anger at what one called “a massacre.”Some said plainly that the cuts were politically driven. Emmanuel Felton, a race and ethnicity reporter, confirmed on X that he was among the staff cut, adding: “This comes six months after hearing in a national meeting that race coverage drives subscriptions. This wasn’t a financial decision, it was an ideological one.”The Washington Post Guild — the union representing its reporters — said the layoffs were not “inevitable” and warned that “a newsroom cannot be hollowed out without consequences for its credibility, its reach and its future.”The Guild also called for Bezos to be replaced if he’s not willing to invest in the publication.“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 that will,” it said in a statement.Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) echoed that suggestion at the end of a lengthy statement lamenting the paper he spent so many years reading “from cover to cover.” “I urge [Bezos] to consider selling the Washington Post to someone who will be a better steward of this beloved and essential institution,” he wrote.The company acknowledged the impact of the cuts in a statement put out early Wednesday. The Post is “taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future, in what amounts to a significant restructuring across the company,” it said in a statement. “These steps are designed to strengthen our footing and sharpen our focus on delivering the distinctive journalism that sets The Post apart and, most importantly, engages our customers,” it added.In a sign of the times, the Post had a glaring lack of coverage of the internal bloodbath on its own website.