Washington Put up to put off a 3rd of workers in newsroom and different departments

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The Washington Put up is shedding one-third of its workers within the newsroom and different departments, a brutal blow to one in every of journalism's legendary manufacturers.

The troubled Put up started implementing large-scale cutbacks on Wednesday, together with eliminating its sports activities division and shrinking the variety of journalists it stations abroad. The adjustments had been introduced by government editor Matt Murray in a Zoom assembly with workers.

The workers discount is a major psychic blow on the Put up, recognized in historical past books for its Watergate revelations and most lately for aggressive protection of President Donald Trump's cutbacks to the federal workforce, and for journalism generally.

Workers members within the newsroom had been informed they'd be getting emails with one in every of two topic traces, asserting that the individual's position has or hasn't been eradicated. A Put up consultant confirmed that one-third of the workers could be minimize, with out saying what number of whole staff the newspaper has.

The newspaper's books division might be closed, and its Washington-area information division and enhancing workers might be restructured, Murray informed workers members. Its Put up Reviews podcast might be suspended.

Murray acknowledged the cuts might be a shock to the system however stated the purpose is to create a Put up that may develop and thrive once more.

"The Washington Put up is taking various troublesome however decisive actions at this time for our future, in what quantities to a major restructuring throughout the corporate," a Put up spokesperson stated in a press release.

"These steps are designed to strengthen our footing and sharpen our concentrate on delivering the distinctive journalism that units The Put up aside and, most significantly, engages our clients."

Strikes anticipated for weeks A non-public firm, the Put up doesn't reveal what number of subscribers it has, though the quantity is believed to be about two million.

The strikes had been anticipated for a number of weeks, since phrase leaked out that the Put up had informed its sports activities staffers who had organized to cowl the Winter Olympics in Italy that they'd not be going. After it turned public, the Put up reversed course and stated it might be sending a restricted workers.

The Put up's troubles stand in distinction to its longtime competitor The New York Instances, which has been thriving in recent times, largely attributable to investments in ancillary merchandise like its Video games website and Wirecutter product suggestions. The Instances has doubled its workers over the previous decade.

In current weeks, many Put up workers members have been interesting on to the newspaper's proprietor, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The newspaper has been bleeding subscribers partially attributable to selections made by him — resembling pulling again from an endorsement of Kamala Harris, a Democrat, in the course of the 2024 presidential election in opposition to Trump, a Republican, and directing a extra conservative activate liberal opinion pages.

The Washington Put up Guild, the union for workers members, had appealed to the general public to ship a message to Bezos: "Sufficient is sufficient. With out the workers of The Washington Put up, there isn't any Washington Put up."