The Washington Post told staffers today that it was moving forward with a sweeping round of layoffs that was part of a “broad strategic reset” of the storied newspaper, which will include eliminating the sports desk, severely cutting back on its international coverage, dismantling its books section, and restructuring its local news team.
Though it was not immediately known exactly how many employees would be impacted by the cuts, it had previously been reported that about 100 staffers from the newsroom could be laid off, and as many as 300 employees from the broader company would face terminations.
However, after emails were sent to staffers on Wednesday morning, it is expected that roughly one-third of staff — about 300 of the roughly 800 journalists in the newsroom — will be laid off, with some staffers saying that this was a “bloodbath”.
Murray revealed that the paper would be “shrinking” its foreign news bureaus and drastically altering its local metro coverage.