The Washington Post’s major staff cuts were a result of the newspaper’s digital ads dropping by 30%, and its subscriptions decreasing by 15% among other losses.
On Wednesday, Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi, posted to X (formerly Twitter) with a breakdown of the company’s financial woes that led to its Tuesday decision to cut 240 employees, slicing nearly 10% of its workforce.
“Context for @washingtonpost buyout program announced this morning, per interim publisher Patty Stonesifer. In the list, Farhi noted that since 2021, The Post lost 28% of its audience, its subscriptions dropped by 15% (2.5 million), print revenue dropped by 10% and digital ads fell by 30%.
“This is a really good business that we overshot on our expenses,” Stonesifer said during the meeting, per Farhi.
The update comes after the company held a meeting on Wednesday to go over the separation deals employees are being offered in the midst of the staff cuts, which The Post announced via an internal company memo on Tuesday.
“Dear Colleagues, I am so sorry to share some difficult news,” the Tuesday statement from The Post’s interim CEO Patty Stonesifer said.
Inbox: Washington Post is reducing its workforce by approximately 240 positions pic.twitter.com/GFVdGZw2pa
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) October 10, 2023
“Over the last eight weeks, I have been working with the senior leadership team to review the current state of our business and financial results. We 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 out business to a healthier place in the coming year. We have work going on across the organization to develop a strong plan for 2024 — and make no mistake — we remain bullish about the future of The Washington Post.”
The memo continued: “As a result we have decided to offer a voluntary separation package over the next few weeks designed to reduce our workforce by approximately 240 people across all functions of The Post. This program will offer generous incentives to employees in specific roles where w believe we can reduce costs if work can be assigned more efficiently.”
The internal development to clear out some of its staff comes after the Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper was reportedly set to lose $100 million, and nine months after The Post stripped the company of 50 staff positions and laid off 20 people.
“Following this meeting, all eligible employees will be notified by email if their position is included in the program, and they are welcome to consider the package. Senior leaders will then share department specific information in meetings to follow throughout the day,” the memo concluded. “I know you will have many questions about this, and will strive to answer these tomorrow as best we can and will work together to make this transition as smooth as possible.”