Washington Post staff are bracing for layoffs as morale in the newsroom plummets in the wake of an exodus of top talent from the broadsheet owned by Jeff Bezos, according to a report.
The impending staff cuts are expected to affect “several dozen” employees in the business division – with an announcement likely to come as soon as this week, according to Status newsletter’s Oliver Darcy.
News of the planned cuts followed Friday’s resignation from the Washington Post of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who resigned in protest of the paper’s decision not to publish a cartoon depicting Bezos and other hunched over billionaires. to President-elect Donald. Trump.
The Washington Post suffered another blow as one of its top political reporters, Josh Dawsey, is leaving the publication to take a position with The Wall Street Journal, Darcy reported in Status over the weekend.
Dawsey, known for his investigative reporting, is expected to start his new gig as a political investigative reporter for The Journal starting next month, according to Status.
Last month, Puck News reported that Dawsey and White House reporter Tyler Pager were two of several Washington Post staffers who were “considering a transfer or have already decided to leave.”
The Journal’s parent company, Dow Jones, is owned by The Post’s parent corporation News Corp.
Last week, two more top political reporters for the Washington Post — Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer — left the publication to take new positions as The Atlantic, the magazine owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of the Apple co-founder. Steve Jobs.
In late October, two Washington Post employees resigned from the editorial board in protest of Bezos’ decision to block an endorsement of Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Bezos said the move to block approval was made to bolster public confidence in his newspaper’s impartiality.
But the readers of the newspaper were very angry with this action. About 250,000 subscribers canceled their memberships as a result, according to reports.
The Amazon founder denied the decision was motivated by his desire to ingratiate himself with Trump in order to protect his other business interests.
Amazon Prime, the video streaming service run by the e-commerce giant founded by Bezos, announced over the weekend that it has acquired exclusive rights to a documentary that offers an “unprecedented behind-the-scenes look” into the life of Melania Trump, the former First Lady. first and next.
During Trump’s first term, the then-president frequently attacked Bezos and cited the Washington Post’s critical coverage of his administration.
Amazon filed suit against the Trump administration after the e-commerce company lost a lucrative cloud computing contract with the Pentagon. The contract was awarded to Microsoft.
Bezos now seems eager to turn over a new leaf in his relationship with the incoming president.
Last month, Bezos made a $1 million donation to Trump’s inaugural fund through Amazon. Although Bezos stepped down as CEO in 2021, he remains the company’s largest shareholder.
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