On Wednesday, storied newspaper axed nearly one-third of company after earlier unpopular moves by owner Jeff Bezos
Under Marty Baron, the Washington Post won 11 Pulitzer prizes and expanded its newsroom to house more than 1,000 journalists. The storied newspaper’s future is now in question, according to its former executive editor.
“The aspirations of this news organization are diminished,” Baron told the Guardian in an interview. “I think that’ll translate into fewer subscribers. And I hope it’s not a death spiral, but I worry that it might be.”
Matt Murray, who now leads the Post as editor in chief, promised staffers on Wednesday that the news organization has a plan to survive and thrive into the future – as it executed one of the largest layoffs in American newspaper history. Nearly one-third of the entire company – which stood at 2,500 employees in late 2023, before a round of buyouts – was axed.
The cuts decimated large swaths of the newspaper, shuttering its sports department and shredding its teams covering local news, style and the world, not to mention its audio and video departments, which had already been battered by previous cuts. Commercial teams were also cut.
