"In the first blush of their relationship, The Washington Post and Jeff Bezos seemed like an excellent match. Here was a paper with a strong pedigree that had fallen on somewhat hard times, and a suitor with funds who seemed eager to return it to steady glory. In 2013 Bezos purchased the paper for $250 million from the Graham family and promised a "golden era" to come. I had left the Post by then but was happy for my former colleagues."
"Yesterday, in a dismal morning Zoom call, the Post 's executive editor, Matt Murray, announced that they were laying off one-third of its already diminished staff. The follow-up email had the tone of robotic obfuscation that any decent editor would have rewritten. ("Following up on today's communication, I'm writing to share the difficult news that your position is eliminated as part of today's organizational changes.") It's of course painful, as a journalist, to see fellow journalists get laid off."
Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million, promising a "golden era." The paper cultivated a watchdog role, especially during the Trump presidency. The Post announced layoffs eliminating one-third of its already diminished staff, communicated via a morning Zoom call and a follow-up email with a robotic tone. The cuts weaken the newsroom's capacity to hold power to account and represent a significant loss to expert journalism. The situation suggests that the paper's future hinges on ownership decisions and strategic choices about investment and priorities.
Read at The Atlantic
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