Andrew Ross Sorkin Grills Jeff Bezos on WaPo Layoffs

"SORKIN: One of the critiques, by the way, and this is may be the wealth critique and everything else, is, you know, we just said the company laid off about 30% of its staff and there's a lot of people out there who said, Jeff's super wealthy, he's talked about this being a public trust, it's something that he bought early on, how much do you care about that piece of it? Why lay people up? Why fire people? Why are you subsidizing the business if in fact JEFF BEZOS: Because The Post needs to be a profitable enterprise that stands on its own two feet."

"SORKIN: But does it? BEZOS: Yes. SORKIN: That's a question because some people say it should be a trust. BEZOS: Let me tell you why. Because it's a measure of its relevance. If people won't pay for our product, we're not doing it's not a good enough product. It's like, you know, doing it would be like poetry without rhyming. It's too easy. So, we want it's got to be something that"

"When I bought The Post, it was very unprofitable when I brought it. The newsroom was even smaller than it is today. We turned it around in two years, it was profitable for six years. I put all that money back in The Post and grew the newsroom, so we've shrunk it back some now. But we haven't shrunk it back to what it was when I bought it, Bezos told Sorkin."

"So what do you think went wrong then? Sorkin asked. Bezos explained that he felt his paper did not properly adapt and needed more financial discipline."

Jeff Bezos addressed questions about layoffs at The Washington Post, including whether cutting about 30% of staff was justified. Bezos said the paper needs to be a profitable enterprise that stands on its own financially. He linked profitability to relevance, arguing that if people do not pay for the product, the product is not good enough. Bezos described earlier efforts after buying the paper, including turning it around to profitability and reinvesting money to grow the newsroom, followed by later shrinkage. He said the paper did not properly adapt and required more financial discipline.

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