The Post at a crossroads: Existential questions in a dire season for news
Critics raise concerns about the values of a new team of executives. Meanwhile, the business woes are real. What does Jeff Bezos want?
After “a full business update, [I] wanted to make sure you know I’m as committed to the future of The Post as ever,” he wrote. “Long term it’s important that The Post return to profitability, a key signal that we’re serving readers in a way that’s important to them.” What Bezos wants from and for The Post has remained the compelling question through a week of internal turmoil, during which his handpicked new publisher and CEO, William Lewis, abruptly replaced the newspaper’s first female executive editor and announced a reorganization of the newsroom — the exact plans for which remain unclear — in a bid to boost earnings.
he business woes, however, are real. Despite a formidable investment from Bezos that dramatically grew and reshaped the company over his decade of ownership, The Post has not been immune to the internet-era pressures that have shattered the traditional business models for publishing. And Lewis came in with a mandate from Bezos to move fast, according to two people familiar with their discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive conversations.
The company has also said that it has lost half of its audience since 2020 — mirroring an industry-wide decline after years of supercharged news cycles. The Post’s digital traffic soared with coverage of Trump’s candidacy and presidency, and later amid the nation’s peak anxiety over the coronavirus pandemic and social justice demonstrations. In March 2020, it hit 139 million monthly visitors. But like many news organizations, it has seen a striking drop-off in audience since then: In November 2022, only about 58 million people visited The Post’s digital platforms. And digital subscriptions, which peaked at 3 million in January 2021, fell to 2.7 million by the end of that year and have not rebounded.
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