The Washington Post announced widespread layoffs on Wednesday, sharply reducing several core newsroom operations. Staff were instructed to stay home and attend a virtual meeting where leadership outlined “significant actions across the company.”
The cuts include shutting down most of the Sports section, closing the Books section, and canceling the daily Post Reports podcast.
BREAKING: Washington Post tells employees its sports, books sections being eliminated in current forms, international coverage downsized, layoffs underway pic.twitter.com/v5ktx45seI
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 4, 2026
The paper is also restructuring its Metro desk, which covers Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and scaling back international coverage, though some foreign bureaus will remain.
The layoffs follow weeks of internal warnings and reflect a strategy led by publisher Will Lewis to prioritize profitability by focusing on politics while trimming other coverage areas.
Breaking News: The Washington Post began sweeping layoffs that were slated to shrink the scope of the publication. https://t.co/3r71CU1shC
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 4, 2026
Journalists appealed to owner Jeff Bezos to preserve the newsroom’s breadth, warning that cuts elsewhere would weaken political reporting.
The move marks another contraction for a major U.S. news organization under financial pressure.
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