Jeff Bezos' WaPo reeling from losses and 'internal drama' as Trump returns to DC: report
At a time when the always newsworthy Donald Trump is headed back to the White House, the venerable Washington Post should be gearing up to cover his second term but instead is being subjected to an exodus of top reporters and internal strife, reports the Wall Street Journal's Alexandra Bruell.
In her report for the Journal, Bruell notes that Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos, who bought the Post in 2013 for $250 million, just watched his investment lose around $100 million last year as new management has failed to stop the bleeding.
The Journal also reports that top-flight journalists are also fleeing to greener pastures under the management of interim executive editor Matt Murray and publisher William Lewis who has still not righted the ship since his hiring.
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Adding to the Post's problems was a decision to spike an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris before the 2024 presidential election that led to a revolt by readers with a reported 250,000 people canceling their subscriptions within days.
According to the Journal, "The changes inside the Post have left many staffers frustrated and confused about the future, the people close to the newsroom said. Journalists across areas from politics to national security, including Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, Tyler Pager and Hannah Allam, have defected to publications such as the New York Times, the Atlantic and ProPublica. Josh Dawsey, a political investigations and enterprise reporter, is leaving for the Journal, where he worked before the Post," adding, "National editor Philip Rucker, investigations editor Peter Wallsten and senior national investigations editor Rosalind Helderman are in the latest batch of newsroom leaders taking calls from other publications."
Attendant readership has also taken a reported drop, with the Journal reporting, "Post leadership has internally discussed a goal of reaching 200 million users, according to staffers, though some in the newsroom say it isn’t clear how that will be measured and whether the figure includes social media followers. The Post had 54 million digital visitors in November 2024, according to media-measurement firm Comscore, down from 114 million in November 2020."
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