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Posted on 02/05/2026 12:49:50 AM PST by Libloather
The Washington Post announced widely expected, significant layoffs on Wednesday, with entire departments being shuttered in what the company is calling a "significant restructuring."
On a webinar with Post employees who were asked to stay home, executive editor Matt Murray announced a significant headcount reduction. The Post is shuttering the sports desk in its current form, dialing back its international footprint, making Metro more "nimble and focused" and eliminating Books. A third of the company has been affected, Fox News Digital has learned.
"The Washington Post is taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future, in what amounts to a significant restructuring across the company. 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," a Washington Post spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Going forward, the Washington Post will cover sports simply as a "cultural phenomenon."
Impacted employees will receive an email about their fate. Staffers are "in shock," despite knowing layoffs were expected for weeks.
"This is the end of the institution. They’ve lost the trust of the newsroom. Anyone who wasn’t laid off today will be looking for a new job," a Washington Post insider told Fox News Digital.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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“That’s a shame” /s
They’d haVe done better closing everything except sports and maybe fashion
Sports is what they should have kept.
Everything else was BS.
Focus on propaganda.
Article:
“Anyone who wasn’t laid off today will be looking for a new job”
I hear they are well qualified to drive garbage trucks.
Lol.
All The Washington Compost needs to remain The Washington Compost is an algorithm that washes and repeats the same Leftist crapola from the Leftist creepozoids that have written for the Compost for the last 30 years.
For both the article bylines and story sources, they can cite the same favorite: Source: Anonymous; Authors - Anonymous
Push comes to shove, they could give the algorithm the same name: Anonymous
Regular readers of The Compost will not notice any difference, and no one else will care.
Everything else was BS.
What I was going to say...
Yup
Showing my age but 50 to 60 years ago they had great sportswriters - even good general reporters.
I asked Google AI about the specific focus:
Strategic Economic & Political Focus
The newsroom has been ordered to focus on areas of “authority and impact” that align with the interests of power in Washington D.C.:
Federal Power and National Security: The paper is retreating from local Metro reporting (cutting 70% of that staff) to focus intently on federal politics and national security.
Competitive “Pillars”:
Coverage is now concentrated on science, health, technology, climate, and business—specifically “journalism that empowers people to take action” regarding wellness and advice.
Alignment with Leadership Interests:
Observers have noted Bezos’s shifting ties, including his presence at President Trump’s 2025 inauguration and multi-million dollar business deals between Amazon and the Trump family.
Abandoned “Public Service” Areas
To serve this new focus, the Post has eliminated sections that previously served broad public interests:
Local Community:
The Metro section was gutted, moving away from being a “dominant, local print product”.
Global Awareness:
Most overseas journalists were laid off, including the entire Middle East roster, significantly reducing the paper’s international footprint.
Cultural Staples:
As previously noted, the elimination of Sports and Books was central to this pivot away from being “everything to everyone”.
Everywhere I look, at all levels of society, in every field of endeavor -- the people in charge of stuff are absolutely terrible at being in charge of stuff.
I don't know how it happened, but managers cannot manage, planners cannot plan, administrators cannot administer.
but there are lots of them.
Tom Boswell would be rolling over, except he is alive and retired.
It is about incentives.
Managers, planners and administrators have to deal with a lot of garbage they cannot control—including personnel issues.
Skilled workers can just do their job for similar pay (in many organizations).
I turned down a bunch of “promotions” for exactly that reason.
I retired a “worker bee” but a very well paid one.
“Washington Post closes sports department, cuts other sections as part of sweeping layoffs”
no doubt the Fake News Department will be the last one that’s cut before the lights are turned off the final time ...
in the mean time, with all the other cuts occurring, WaPo will soon be nothing but 100% fake news ...
“Anyone who wasn’t laid off today will be looking for a new job,” a Washington Post insider told Fox News Digital.”
ROTFLOL!
new jobs, where?
even the Penny Shoppers have gone out of business ...
oh, yeah, maybe coal mining, given that AI is supposedly going to do all the coding now ...
I did the same. I took one management position. But I was not allowed to make hiring decisions. I was also not allowed to make firing decisions. I was also not allowed to determine raises for anyone on my teams. I had a West coast team and an East coast team. I was not allowed to travel to the West coast to ever meet my team.
Confession: I had the job for two years and as soon as I realized that I was not allowed to do anything about anything, it became very easy. I collected my paychecks, but I did exactly nothing. What was the point? I moved back into workerbee territory and was happier.
I find it hard to believe that this is really universal experience, but maybe it is. Maybe everyone in management feels powerless and hopeless and has just completely given up. No incentives to make an effort, so just drift along collecting paychecks.
“the Post has already taken “long overdue steps toward reinvention,” including embedding audience strategy editors in every department.”\
reminds me of the Soviet political commissars attached to every platoon of the Soviet army who stand behind the troops with machine guns, prodding them forward into the enemies’ cannons ...
what else have they got to do, other than drink and post bitter diatribes against the hands that used to feed them? It's not like "reporter" jobs are falling off trees at thousands of other healthy newspapers ...
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