Washington Post begins sweeping layoffs as it scales back news coverage
#Washington Post #Jeff Bezos #Layoffs #News Coverage #Journalism #Media Industry #Sports Department #Foreign News
📌 Key Takeaways
- The Washington Post is laying off a third of its workforce across all departments.
- The newspaper will eliminate its sports department and reduce foreign news coverage.
- Executive editor Matt Murray announced the layoffs during a Zoom call with employees on February 4, 2026.
- Former executive editor Martin Baron expressed concern that the cuts will weaken the paper's ability to cover news.
- Reporters had previously sent letters to Jeff Bezos pleading not to cut jobs.
📖 Full Retelling
🐦 Character Reactions (Tweets)
Alexandra TruthseekerBreaking: Washington Post to cut sports, foreign news. Jeff Bezos: 'I promised to pursue the truth, not the World Series.' #MediaLayoffs
Barry SportsGuyJust got laid off from the Washington Post. Guess I'll finally have time to watch the games I used to cover. #Irony
Emma GlobalGossipWashington Post reducing foreign news coverage. Jeff Bezos: 'Who needs international news when you have Amazon Prime?' #MediaCuts
Martin BaronJust got laid off from the Washington Post. Guess I'll finally have time to watch the games I used to cover. #Irony
💬 Character Dialogue
🏷️ Themes
Media Industry, Layoffs, News Coverage, Journalism
📚 Related People & Topics
Layoff
Involuntary termination of employment of an employee due to business concerns
A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing an organization. Originally, layoff referred exclusively to a temporar...
The Washington Post
American daily newspaper
The Washington Post (locally known as The Post and, informally, WaPo or WP) is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area. In 2023, the Post had 130,000 print subscribers and 2.5 million digital subscriber...
Journalism
Production of reports on current events
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (professional or not), the methods of gathering inf...
Jeff Bezos
American businessman (born 1964)
Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( BAY-zohss; né Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. According to Forbes, as of December 2025, Bezos's esti...
🔗 Entity Intersection Graph
Connections for Layoff:
- 👤 The Washington Post (3 shared articles)
- 👤 Jeff Bezos (3 shared articles)
- 🌐 Watergate scandal (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Newsroom (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Interest rate (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Amazon (1 shared articles)
- 🏢 Federal Reserve (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Bitcoin (1 shared articles)
- 🌐 Media management (1 shared articles)
- 👤 William Lewis (1 shared articles)
📄 Original Source Content
MoneyWatch Washington Post begins sweeping layoffs as it sharply scales back news coverage By Mary Cunningham Mary Cunningham Reporter, MoneyWatch Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. She previously worked at "60 Minutes," CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program. Read Full Bio Mary Cunningham Updated on: February 4, 2026 / 10:25 AM EST / CBS News Add CBS News on Google The Washington Post is laying off a third of its workers across all departments, scaling back foreign coverage and shutting down some sections of the paper. Executive editor Matt Murray announced the layoffs during a Zoom call with employees on Wednesday. The Post will restructure its local news department and editing staff, close its books department, and shrink the number of journalists it stations overseas, he told staffers. Barry Svrluga, a sports columnist at the Post, said on social media that the media outlet will also close its sports department in its "current form," citing comments by Murray during Wednesday's call. WaPo "dramatically diminished," former editor says Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post from 2013 to 2021, told CBS News the cuts will seriously weaken the paper's ability to cover news. "The scope of the coverage is going to be dramatically diminished," he said. "That's sad because the newspaper is setting its ambitions low, rather than setting its ambitions high and narrowing its scope." A spokesperson for the newspaper didn't immediately reply to a request for comment on the scale of the job cuts or confirm the size of its workforce. The announcement follows days of speculation that the company, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, was planning to make cuts to its foreign, sports and local desks. Pleading with Bezos Amid media reports about the planned layoffs, some Washington Post reporters last month sent letters to owner Jeff Bezos pleading with the billionaire and Amazon founder not to cut any jobs....