Jeff Bezos bought and then destroyed one of the country’s three most important newspapers
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The Washington Post laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday, which its former executive editor said “ranks among the darkest days” in the newspaper’s history. Approximately one-third of employees were affected.
Staffers at the Post have been on edge for weeks about the rumored cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee, not authorized to speak publicly.
During the meeting, editor in chief Matt Murray told employees that the Post was undergoing a “strategic reset” to better position the publication for the future, according to several employees who were on the call.
Murray acknowledged that the Post has struggled to reach “customers” and talked about the need to compete in a crowded media marketplace. “Today, the Washington Post is taking a number of actions across the company to secure our future,” he said, according to an audio recording of the meeting.
Murray told employees that the Post was ending the current iteration of its popular sports desk, though some employees will remain on a new team. The Post is also restructuring its local coverage, reducing its international reporting operation, cutting its books desk, and suspending its flagship daily news podcast Post Reports.
Murray said that while the Post’s international coverage team will be scaled back, approximately 12 bureaus will remain “with a focus on national security issues”. . .
Martin Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said: “This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”
For all its problems, the NYT is just about the last national daily publication that can do the kind of journalism that requires deep pockets and independent reporters. The WSJ’s news side is still there, but the opinion pages are so unhinged that it’s hard to believe Murdoch will continue to tolerate actual journalism the moment it should become inconvenient to his empire.
This is happening for one reason only: Because Jeff Bezos is currying favor with Donald Trump, because it’s in Bezos’s financial interest to do so. This is plutocracy in its purest and most corrupt form.