Posted on 10/11/2023 6:19:14 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Washington Post is preparing to reduce its staff by 240 employees after the outlet did not meet revenue or subscription expectations in the past several months.
Interim Washington Post CEO Patty Stonesifer announced the staffing cut “across all functions” of the paper in a memo sent out to employees Tuesday, according to multiple reports. The newest cut in staff follows suit to the financial burdens and layoffs other corporate outlets have witnessed in the past year, such as NPR and CNN. The Post currently employs roughly 2,500 staff members.
Senior leadership will be offering a voluntary separation package over the next few weeks, according to The New York Times’ Ben Mullin. Stonesifer said the program will “offer generous incentives” to staff in specific departments and roles, and will be awarded based on seniority if the number of volunteers exceeds the 240 figure, Mullin reported.
“Over the last 8 weeks, I have been working with the senior leadership team to review the current state of our business and financial results,” the memo reads, according to Mullin. “We have determined that our prior projections for traffic, subscriptions, and advertising growth for the past two years — and into 2024 — have been overly optimistic and we are working to find ways to return our business to a healthier place in the coming year.”
“We have work going on across the organization to develop a strong plan for 2024 — and make no mistake — we remain bullish about the future of The Washington Post,” the memo continues. “Our core products and many of our recent investments show great promise — and we all believe the growth we saw in 2016 to 2021 will be ours again if we prioritize and plan appropriately. But the urgent need to invest in our top growth priorities brought us to the difficult conclusion that we need to adjust our cost structure now.”
Media outlets across the U.S. have purged their staff over budgets and profitability. In December 2022, the Post eliminated its decades-old stand-alone weekly Sunday magazine, primarily due to “economic head winds.”
CNN laid off and terminated a massive portion of its staff after its profit sank below $1 billion for the first time since 2016 with the rise of digital subscriptions and record-low ratings. Prominent figures at the network, including Chris Cillizza and Alison Kiosk, were fired in early December.
NPR announced the outlet planned to lay off 10% of its staff in February after revenues were estimated to fall roughly $30 million short of an annual budget of $300 million.
Big Tech workers have also slashed staff around the same time. At Twitter, Elon Musk eliminated the entire Board of Directors to appoint himself as the sole director of the company and slashed 70% of the company’s staff, while Facebook parent company Meta cut over 11,000 jobs, 13% of its staff, due to inflation and difficulty in the advertising market.
“Telling other people my feelings is more important than a paycheck.”
Eat your feelings for breakfast.
They’re not employees. They’re stenographers for the deep state.
Why do the need employees? They already just print what the CIA a tells them to
Maybe some government assistance could be worked out. Oh wait, they already did that with COVID relief funds. Never mind.
What a shame. Maybe they should return to their roots bring back a Woodward and Bernstein expose of a corrupt President. Call it “All the President’s Money”
I’ll believe the Washington Post is serious about improving their situation when they terminate their relationship with that wretched dog Jennifer Rubin.
Splain dat to you landlord..............
Indeed. They should enjoy their suck.
Dear, pass the grey poupon….
WAPO is owned by Amazon. Correct?
The good news is that they didn’t have to go through the trouble of firing Jamal Khashoggi.
It’s never too late to learn to code..................
Jeff Bezos is a liberal billionaire. Why doesn’t he live by his principles and share the wealth so they can keep their jobs?
Yet the betting odds are that most, if not all, of those laid off still espouse the Woke doctrine and will vote a straight dem ticket.
Bezos......to be exact..............
Looks like one of the laid-off reporters could do an expose’..............
Probably if there's a "reporter" with a few ounces of sense, then he/she will be cut.
The paper isn’t good enough to train puppies on. I hope bezos loses his entire investment.
“offer generous incentives” to staff in specific departments and roles, and will be awarded based on seniority”
Where is “equity” when you need it....
Lol.
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