The Washington Post’s readership has reportedly declined during Joe Biden’s presidency — and the Jeff Bezos-owned broadsheet lost $100 million last year alone — as the embattled newspaper continues to suffer an exodus of top talent.
The left-leaning publication drew about 2.5 million to 3 million daily users to its site last summer, a fraction of the 22.5 million daily visitors at its peak when Biden took office in January 2021, according to internal data shared with Traffic light.
The decline in site traffic caused the business to lose about $100 million in weak subscription and advertising revenue in 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
WashPo took a hit in the bottom line after 200,000 readers reportedly canceled their subscriptions following Bezos’ decision to kill an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris just weeks before the election.
The Washington Post had 54 million digital visitors last November — up from 114 million in November 2020, according to global media analytics firm Comscore.
Company executives have discussed ways to reach a target of 200 million users, according to the Journal.
Executives at the paper once lauded for its coverage of Watergate have suggested using artificial intelligence and news-gathering tools to achieve the goal, the newspaper said.
A Washington Post spokesman declined to comment, noting that they do not handle revenue figures as a private company.
Last week, the paper said it was cutting 4% of its workforce – or nearly 100 roles – on the business side of operations as it looks to cut costs.
Meanwhile, senior executives are also failing to convince newsroom staff that they have a clear vision for the broadsheet’s future, more than a dozen people close to the newsroom told the Journal.
Bezos — the Amazon founder with a net worth of $233.1 billion, according to Forbes — has pushed the newsroom to include more conservative views in its coverage.
“Increasingly we speak only to a certain elite,” Bezos wrote in an opinion piece ahead of the November election, after rejecting Harris’ endorsement.
Staffers from the opinion section were quick to hand in their resignations – and the talent exodus has only continued as rivals seek top journalists.
On Monday, veteran opinion writer Jennifer Rubin resigned and took a swipe at Bezos for bending the knee to President-elect Donald Trump.
The Atlantic lured political correspondents Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, according to The New York Times.
Hannah Allam is headed to ProPublica, while both Tyler Pager and Josh Dawsey are returning to previous employers — The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, respectively.
National editor Philip Rucker, investigations editor Peter Wallsten and senior national investigations editor Rosalind Helderman are reportedly fielding calls from other publications, people familiar with the discussions told the Journal.
Matt Murray, the Washington Post’s interim executive editor, told colleagues last week that his appointment was no longer interim, but the company would not make a formal announcement, a Washington Post spokesman told the Journal.
As interim editor, Murray requested that the writers of the more analytical pieces move to the opinion section to more clearly separate opinion and news.
He also created a new policy that prevents the Washington Post from being covered. The paper did not report on editorial page editor David Shipley killing a cartoon showing Bezos and other wealthy figures bowing to Trump.
Murray is reportedly conducting a review to determine what resonates with current and future audiences, people familiar with the review told the Journal.
Several employees told the Journal that there is tension between CEO William Lewis and the rest of the newsroom.
The newsroom is also concerned about a mandate to return to the office five days a week starting in June.
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