Washington Post CEO Taking Drastic Measures Amid The Paper's Failing 'Financial Health'

On Wednesday, the leadership at the Washington Post made a major announcement that could be the beginning of the end for the mainstream media franchise. CEO Patty Stonesifer told employees in a memo that she would be seeking to lay off around 120 employees after it offered exit packages to 240 amid growing profitability issues that have plagued the outlet. The Post initially announced that they "have determined that our prior projections for traffic, subscriptions, and advertising growth for the past two years — and into 2024 — have been overly optimistic, and we are working to find ways to return our business to a healthier place in the coming year," the email began. "But the urgent need to invest in our top growth priorities brought us to the difficult conclusion that we need to adjust our cost structure now."

Nearly a month after sending the initial exit package offer, The Post's leadership is taking drastic action to cut back on staff. "As promised, I will continue to provide updates on the voluntary separation package and where we stand in the process. As of today, 120 employees have accepted the package. We now have just under two weeks before the December 11 deadline for non-union employees and two and a half weeks before the December 15 deadline for Guild-covered employees," Stonesifer explained.

"To ensure that we meet our goal of 240 acceptances in this one-time voluntary package, we will review the caps that would otherwise limit the number of individuals on specific teams who can participate," the memo reads. "We want everyone to understand that we need 240 acceptances to help restore The Post's financial health." As reported by The Post Millenial, The Post is set to lose over $100 million in 2023 as subscribers have waned from their three million person peak in 2020 to just 2.5 million. The 240 staffers are set to join 20 other newsroom personnel who were let go earlier this year.

Given the abysmal "financial health" of the Jeff Bezos-owned outlet, the leadership explained that if they fall short of their 240 exit package goal, the leadership will be forced to "implement involuntary layoffs in those areas where we have already identified that positions do not need to be replaced, where work can be reassigned more efficiently or where we can otherwise achieve cost savings." The memo went on to explain that if an employee were to be laid off, they would receive far less benefits than if they were to take the severance package. 

Read the full memo below:

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