The Washington Post, owned by Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos, lost over $100M last year, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
The Post reportedly lost about $100M in 2024 and $77M in 2023. Its financial woes were the primary reason behind the layoffs of one-third of its workforce, which eliminated its sports section and many foreign bureaus.
Jeff D’Onofrio, the Post’s acting publisher and CEO, and its executive editor Matt Murray held a staff meeting on Wednesday to discuss the 148-year-old paper’s financial condition and productivity.
D’Onofrio told staff that expenses exceeded revenue between 2022 and 2025 as the Post hired hundreds of staffers in the prior years.
He added that the number of news stories published by the paper fell 42% since 2020, while newsroom costs were up 16% in 2025 compared with 2020.
“We don’t want or need to do every story or jump on everything that happens,” said Murray. “We’re not a paper of record; there’s no such thing anymore in today’s world.”