Channels with Peter Kafka Jeff Bezos Used To Be In Love with The Washington Post. What Happened?
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Feb 5, 2026 Eric Wemple, an experienced media reporter who covered the Washington Post and now writes for The New York Times, walks through the newspaper’s dramatic staffing cuts and shifting strategy. He recounts Bezos’s 2013 purchase and early investments. The conversation focuses on reasons for the layoffs, editorial tensions, business missteps, and what the Post’s future might look like.
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Massive Cuts To Save The Paper
- The Post cut about 300 newsroom roles, reducing staff by more than a third to roughly 500 people.
- Eric Wemple frames the move as a survival strategy to "save the institution."
Audience Metrics Reshape Coverage
- Management says cuts align coverage with what audiences read and click on.
- Wemple warns this rationale gutted sports, international, and metro reporting instead of strategic growth.
Bezos' Early Hands-Off Investment
- Jeff Bezos arrived in 2013 enthusiastic and deferred to newsroom leaders while investing heavily.
- He upgraded tech, audience analytics, and expanded investigative and international reporting.
