Washington Post begins massive layoffs; closes sports department, reduces overseas journalists
Washington Post plans to retain several reporters to join features and cover sports as a cultural and societal phenomenon, Reuters quoted sources as saying. They also said that it will shrink its international footprint, impacting all departments
THE Washington Post has begun massive layoffs in all departments across the company. According to Reuters, an American daily newspaper has eliminated its sports department “in its current form” and has also reduces its number of its international journalists in large-scale job cuts.
The Washington Post plans to retain several reporters to join features and cover sports as a cultural and societal phenomenon, Reuters quoted sources as saying. They also said that it will shrink its international footprint, impacting all departments. The most hit has been the sports department, which has been closed, according to the reports.
According to the reports, the job cuts were announced by Executive Editor Matt Murray during a call with employees. On the call, Matt Murray said, “We will be closing the sports department in its current form.”
“All departments are impacted. Politics and government will remain our largest desk and will remain central to our engagement and subscriber growth,” the source quoted the executive editor as saying. He added, “The actions we are taking include a broad strategic reset with a significant staff reduction.”
The large-scale layoffs come a few days after The Washington Post scaled back its coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics amid mounting financial losses.
The more than 145-year-old newspaper last year announced job cuts across several business functions to navigate those challenges, stating that the reductions would not affect its newsroom. Also Read | Amazon layoffs: Which departments will get affected as e-commerce giant cuts jobs?
The Washington Post, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, has been cutting costs in recent years. It offered voluntary separation packages to employees across all functions in 2023 amid losses of $100 million.
In a letter to Bezos last week (January 29), The Post's White House staff said their most impactful coverage depends heavily on collaboration with teams at risk of job cuts and that a diversified newsroom is essential at a time when the paper faces financial challenges.
Will Lewis was hired in 2023 to help The Washington Post. In 2024, he had warned that The Post was in trouble. “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff,” he said.
In 2024, Jeff Bezos, too, had admitted that the American publisher was losing money. But he maintained, “We saved The Washington Post once, and we’re going to save it a second time.”
