The Washington Post’s readership reportedly cratered during Joe Biden’s presidency — and the Jeff Bezos-owned broadsheet lost $100 million last year alone — as the embattled paper continues to suffer an exodus of top talent.
The left-leaning publication drew about 2.5 million to 3 million daily users to its site last summer, a fraction of the 22.5 million daily visitors at its peak when Biden took office in January 2021, according to internal data shared with Semafor.
The plummeting site traffic led the business to lose around $100 million on weak subscription and ad revenue in 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
WaPo took a hit to its bottom line after reportedly 250,000 readers canceled their subscriptions following Bezos’ decision to kill an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris just weeks before the election.
The Washington Post had 54 million digital visitors last November — down from 114 million in November 2020, according to global media analytics firm Comscore.
Leaders at the company have discussed ways to hit a goal of 200 million users, according to the Journal.
Executives at the paper once vaunted for its Watergate coverage have suggested using artificial-intelligence tools and news aggregation to reach the goal, the outlet said.
A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment, noting that, as a private company, it doesn’t address revenue figures.
Last week, the paper said it was slashing 4% of its workforce — or nearly 100 roles — on the business side of operations as it seeks to cut costs.
Meanwhile, top brass are also failing to convince editorial staffers that they have a clear vision for the broadsheet’s future, more than a dozen people close to the newsroom told the Journal.
Bezos — the Amazon founder with a net worth of $233.1 billion, according to Forbes — has been pushing the newsroom to include more conservative viewpoints in its coverage.
“Increasingly we talk only to a certain elite,” Bezos wrote in an opinion piece ahead of the November election after axing the Harris endorsement.
Staffers from the opinion section were quick to submit their resignations — and the exodus of talent has only continued as rivals poach top reporters.
On Monday, veteran opinion writer Jennifer Rubin resigned, and took a parting shot at Bezos for bending the knee to incoming President-elect Donald Trump.
The Atlantic lured away political correspondents Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, according to the New York Times.
Hannah Allam is headed to ProPublica, while both Tyler Pager and Josh Dawsey are returning to previous employers — the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, respectively.
National editor Philip Rucker, investigations editor Peter Wallsten and senior national investigations editor Rosalind Helderman are reportedly taking calls from other publications, people familiar with the discussions told the Journal.
Matt Murray, the Washington Post’s interim executive editor, told colleagues last week that his appointment was no longer temporary, but the company would not be making a formal announcement, a Washington Post spokesperson told the Journal.
As interim editor, Murray asked that writers of more analytical pieces move to the opinion section to more clearly divide opinion and news stories.
He has also created a new policy preventing the Washington Post from covering itself. The paper did not report on editorial page editor David Shipley killing a cartoon showing Bezos and other wealthy figures bowing to Trump.
Murray is reportedly conducting a review to determine what resonates with current and prospective audiences, people familiar with the review told the Journal.
Some staffers told the Journal there is tension between CEO William Lewis and the rest of the newsroom.
The newsroom is also upset over a mandate to return to the office five days a week starting in June.