Bezos-owned Washington Post cuts more jobs

The Washington Post is laying off nearly 100 workers, or 4% of its staff, in an attempt to stem growing losses.

The cuts will affect mainly employees on the business side of the storied US newspaper owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

The publication is among many news outlets struggling in the digital age as a growing number of online platforms compete for advertising revenues.

The layoffs come at a time of turmoil at the company after Mr Bezos broke with tradition and blocked an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the US presidential election in November.

“The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry”, a spokesperson for the newspaper said.

“Changes across our business functions are all in service of our greater goal to best position The Post for the future.”

In 2023, the Washington Post reported losses of $77m (£45m) and falling readership on its website. That same year, the newspaper announced it was offering workers voluntary buyouts in a bid to cut headcount by 10%.

Mr Bezos wrote an opinion piece explaining that blocking the endorsement was necessary because of growing public perception that the “media is biased.”

Still, the newspaper said 250,000 of its readers cancelled their subscriptions in protest.

Since then, several high-profile journalists, including investigative reporter Josh Dawsey, who confirmed on X that he was taking a job at The Wall Street Journal, have also left the newspaper. Managing editor Matea Gold is joining the Post competitor The New York Times, the Times confirmed.

The apparent conflict between Bezos and the newspaper’s top talent took a turn for the worse on Saturday when Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, Ann Telnaes, said she was resigning from the Washington Post.

That came after the newspaper refused to publish a satirical cartoon that showed Mr Bezos and other tycoons kneeling before a statue of President-elect Donald Trump.

Last month, Mr Bezos announced Amazon would donate $1m to Trump’s inauguration fund and make a $1m in-kind contribution. Mr Bezos also described Trump’s re-election victory as “an extraordinary political comeback” and dined with him at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.