Overview
- The Post carried out sweeping reductions that reporters and company sources described as about 30 percent of staff, with more than 300 journalists leaving and several desks wound down.
- In his first on‑record comments since the cuts, Bezos told CNBC he wants the paper to be a self‑sustaining business and called profitability a measure of the paper’s relevance.
- Bezos said he instructed newsroom leaders to “follow the data” when choosing which sections to reduce and that he did not personally pick who would be laid off.
- He made a single editorial exception: investigative reporting, which he described as the heart of the paper and said should not be judged by short‑term audience data.
- Bezos cited a prior turnaround that produced years of profit and said recent reported losses of more than $100 million prompted renewed financial discipline, a shift that could narrow coverage in areas like sports, metro and foreign reporting and reshape how the Post funds journalism.