The Washington Post (WP) reported today that over 300 of its staff were cut, including several culture critics, writers, and editors.
According to NPR, Executive Editor Matt Murray said that in the era of artificial intelligence, the move was “a strategic reset” that was necessary to compete. In a newsroom Zoom call, he said that the layoffs were “overdue” in light of “difficult and even disappointing realities.”
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos acquired the newspaper in 2013 and has come under widespread criticism from many who accuse him of attempting to curry favor with the current U.S. administration by slanting the paper’s coverage towards political opinions aligned with Trump’s ideology.
While a list of all those who’ve lost their positions is not yet available, multiple arts and culture reporters have confirmed the layoffs.
Michael Andor Brodeur, a classical music critic based in D.C., and “focused on ideas and issues in and around the world of classical and contemporary music,” was part of the layoffs. He wrote on social media today, “To my readers and fellow former colleagues at the Washington Post, it was a dream! Thank you for six wonderful years.”
Playbill confirmed that WP’s chief theatre critic, Naveen Kumar, was terminated. He said that he was laid off alongside multiple of the paper’s other arts editors, which was confirmed by a Violin Channel source.
Jada Yuan, a former feature reporter covering culture and entertainment in New York City and Washington, D.C., posted the following on Instagram, saying that “arts coverage that doesn’t involve Trump has been eliminated.”
Multiple outlets have also reported that the layoffs will significantly shrink the paper’s Metro section, which covers the Washington, D.C. area, plus eliminate most of the Sports section, the Books section, and the publication’s daily “Post Reports” podcast. Foreign news reporting, particularly in the Middle East, will also decrease.
As of today, Bezos had not commented on the layoffs.
“Continuing to eliminate workers only stands to weaken the newspaper, drive away readers and undercut The Post’s mission,” the Washington Post Guild said in a statement on Wednesday.