Washington Post to conduct layoffs in coming year

The Washington Post will conduct layoffs in the coming year, publisher Fred Ryan told employees during a town hall on Wednesday.

Video taken from the in-person town hall at the newspaper’s downtown Washington, D.C., headquarters and posted to social media shows frustrated employees peppering Ryan with questions about how the newsroom will be effected and demanding a justification for the cuts.

“We’ll have more information as we move forward,” Ryan is seen saying before thanking the employees in attendance as he walks away.

Kathy Baird, chief communications officer at the Post, told The Hill on Wednesday afternoon the company anticipates the coming job cuts “will be a single digit percentage of our employee base, and we will finalize those plans over the coming weeks.”

“The Washington Post is evolving and transforming to put our business in the best position for future growth. We are planning to direct our resources and invest in coverage, products, and people in service of providing high value to our subscribers and new audiences. As a result, a number of positions will be eliminated,” Baird said. “This will not be a net reduction in Post headcount. Recently, we have made some of the largest investments in The Post’s history and 2023 will be another year of continued investment.”

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, the Post employees’ union teased plans to confront Ryan, saying “employees sent questions in advance, but our publisher Fred Ryan rarely answers the hard ones. None are taken live.”

“But after brutal layoffs, we want answers about WaPo’s future,” the union said. “Democracy Dies in Darkness, right?”

On Wednesday afternoon the Guild said its member employees are “outraged” to learn of Ryan’s plans “during a time of supposed growth at a formidable news empire.” 

“It’s no reassurance to dedicated workers who have given years of service to this company that The Post will continue to hire new people even as they lose their jobs,” the Guild said. “Why can’t our publisher give us the transparency we hold as the central tenet of this news organization?”

The latest round of planned cuts comes just days after the Post announced it will cease production of its Sunday magazine and eliminate a number of editorial positions associated with the product.

Across the media industry, leaders have been conducting layoffs, hiring freezes and staff reductions to cut costs amid a bleak ad revenue market, high inflation and concern about the overall economic outlook in 2023.

CNN this month went through a deep round of job cuts as it looks to slash a reported $100 million from its budget.

BuzzFeed and Vox have laid off newsroom employees over the last several weeks, and on Monday NPR announced it was ending its popular summer internship program in a bid to cut expenses.

Updated at 5:35 p.m.