Jeff Bezos' Washington Post launches major newsroom clear-out

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is offering buyouts to dozens of staffers.

The newspaper has offered buyout packages to opinion writers, staffers with 10 years’ experience and entire departments, including the video desk, the copy desk and the sports copy desks, reported The Daily Beast.

“Like the rest of our industry, we are adapting to changing habits and new technologies that are transforming news experiences,” executive editor Matt Murray told staffers in a memo obtained by the Beast. “Even as we have begun creating new departments and welcoming new colleagues, to reach new audiences we must increase our staffing flexibility and expand in areas such as audience data and social video.”

Staffers were given until July to decide whether to accept the buyouts, but opinion staffers were also told the offer was meant to let them “make a clear-eyed decision on whether they want to be part of the new direction for Post Opinion.”

Bezos had angered opinion staffers earlier this year, sending some longtime columnists for the doors, when he encouraged them to lean into the traditionally conservative values of “free markets and personal liberties.”