Washington Post is set to cut 240 positions – 10% of its staff – across the organization to ‘avoid more layoffs’
The Washington Post plans to cut about 240 jobs to compensate for dwindling digital numbers.
Confirmed on Tuesday, the plan will see the paper shed nearly 10 percent of its workforce – their second staff reduction so far this year.
Patty Stonesifer, the publication’s interim chief executive officer, said she hopes to implement the initiative through voluntary buyouts offered this week, and that more details will be revealed in a staff meeting Wednesday.
The sudden announcement comes at the end of a difficult year for the media industry, with publications like CNN, The Los Angeles Times and NPR all involved in layoffs, often to account for declining online subscriptions and advertising revenue.
In a company-wide email, Stonesifer said the Post β which is owned by Jeff Bezos β is no different, months after the sudden resignation of longtime CEO Fred Ryan in June.
The Washington Post plans to cut about 240 jobs to compensate for dwindling digital numbers, an email sent to staff on Tuesday confirmed
Bezos bought the paper about a decade ago for $250 million and previously said he wanted the business to be “profitable”
Ryan, a former Reagan aide who was also the paper’s publisher, has been blamed for many of the Post’s problems, which Stonesifer said Tuesday she is trying to fix.
The Amazon board member brought in by Bezos earlier this year called the situation “urgent” and wrote how the cut will hopefully “return our business to a healthier place in the coming year.”
“Our previous projections for traffic, subscriptions and ad growth for the past two years β and into 2024 β were too optimistic,” she said a little more than three months into her interim tenure.
‘The urgent need to invest in our top growth priorities has brought us to the difficult conclusion that we need to adjust our cost structure now.’
The former CEO of Microsoft went on to explain how the company wants to avoid layoffs through the use of buyouts. In January, the company cut 20 roles using layoffs β a move the paper is trying to avoid this time around.
“To be clear, we designed this program to reduce our workforce by approximately 240 employees in hopes of avoiding more difficult actions such as layoffs β a situation we are united in trying to avoid,” Stonesifer maintained.
She said the billionaire estate would offer “a voluntary severance package” as an incentive, and that the amounts donated would be “generous.”
She did not say which roles would be cut – with the latest layoff affecting only Post journalists – but confirmed that more than 240 people will be offered the packages, but that only 240 will receive them.
Patty Stonesifer, the Amazon board member Bezos tapped to head the newspaper earlier this year, said she hopes to carry out the initiative through voluntary buyouts offered this week
Stonesifer replaced former Post boss Fred Ryan as the company’s top executive in June, after the paper’s longtime publisher faced criticism for declining online subscriptions and advertising revenue. The former Reagan aide, who joined the paper in 2014, was seen here in May weeks before his ouster
“Acceptances will be limited to approximately 240 people,” it said, before adding that if acceptances exceeded the amount, the packages would be handed out according to seniority – without specifying whether the roles would be limited to the newsroom.
Currently, the DC-headquartered company has about 2,600 employees spread across its umbrella β with a little more than 1,000 working on the editorial side of its newspaper and its online counterpart.
Bezos, who paid $250 million for the well-known left-wing paper in 2013, has previously said he wants to keep the business profitable – a desire that has recently been at risk of being unrealized.
Currently, The Post – as is the case with countless other publications – is battling huge subscriber numbers, especially for its digital edition.
The site’s all-access plan β the only way to see the paper online for the past decade β costs $4 a month, while a relatively recent promotion offers readers a deal for $40 for their first year, and $120 each after that.